A Happy Thanksgiving

Since David and I got married, we've rotated major holidays with our respective families -- Thanksgiving with one set and Christmas with the other, and then flipped the next year. So this year, we spent Thanksgiving with my family down in Raleigh, NC.

As always, there was good food aplenty:

My youngest brother Eric, my mother, and my middle brother David -- plus the
mashed potatoes and garlic green beans I made!


My dad carving the turkey; Eric always starts Thanksgiving dinner with the drumstick

And after dinner, my dad got to play master of the house, spreading his largesse to the lowliest members of the household:

Feeding the bones to the dogs: Puggy is the big guy eating from my
dad's hand, and Pretty is the slightly smaller dog half in the foreground

On Friday, we spent most of the day in downtown Raleigh. I spent most of my childhood in Raleigh, and know my way around most of the town, but I never really did any of the "touristy" things or visit any of the museums until I brought David home and got to show him around. My family got in on the touristy fun this year, starting with a walk around the Capitol grounds:

Me, David, my mom, my dad, and Eric, in front of the NC Capitol -- the statue depicts
the three US presidents born in NC (Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and James Polk)

And we capped off the day with a visit to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. Here's a representative sample of the conversation in my family:

MOM: "Go in front of that display, you three, and I'll take your picture."
**We good-naturedly pose, for the zillionth time, for a picture.**
MOM: "It'll look like you're really at the beach!"
**click**
MOM: "Oh shoot, I got the lights in the picture..."

Sure, it kind of looks like we're really at a beach, right?

All in all, it was an enjoyable holiday visit with my family -- I'm glad we could make it down this year!