Thanksgiving 2009

We had everyone over for Thanksgiving at our house this year. Grandmother and Grandfather, Nathan and Ashley (and Thor and Ares), and Joella all arrived on Wednesday. Dan came up from Tulsa on Thursday morning. We were also joined by Brian, a friend of Michelle's from work.

Jeff and I decided to go the easy route for the big meal this year, so we grilled a few flat-iron steaks and made baked potatoes in the oven. We had a green salad, and some yummy red-hot applesauce Jello and banana bread brought by Grandmother. We didn't duck out of cooking entirely... we made a fruit savarin for dessert which went over pretty well. We still had lots of dishes to wash, but no real cooking dishes, so it was a pretty quick cleanup.

Cooking, sort of

Michelle, Grandmother, Dan, Nathan, Ashley

Joella, Brian, Grandfather, Jeff

We had a good time together. Jeff and I finally joined the digital age with the purchase of a new television a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, but since we're too cheap to bother to get digital cable, and since our Blu-Ray player hasn't arrived yet, and because we're still participating in the Atari 2600/Nintendo 64 gaming age at our house, Nathan offered to bring down his Wii and his Blu-Ray player to help keep everyone entertained. We all had fun watching Grandmother and Grandfather try out bowling and golfing, and then the rest of us played some tennis and pummeled each other in boxing. We ogled "Planet Earth" on Blu-Ray for a while, and then we all watched Star Trek after dinner.

Nathan explains Wii to G&G

Grandmother tries her hand at golf

Gritting your teeth makes you a more effective boxer

Dan and Joella duke it out

Domestic violence

Dan had to leave on Thursday, and Nathan, Ashley, Grandmother and Grandfather all left on Friday. Joella stuck around until Sunday. She and I had fun going to yoga class at the Y together on Saturday, and Jeff joined us for a trip over to the movie theater to see New Moon. It was a pretty good weekend.

Climate Change

We swapped out my summer tires and wheels for my winter tires and wheels a few weeks ago. There was a chance we'd get snow right after this, and we did get a little, but none of it stuck. So, I still don't know how the new car will do in the winter. We have another chance for snow this week, so perhaps I'll find out soon.

The summer setup

My husband of excellence

Mounting the winter wheel

Installing the bolts

The winter setup fully installed

I decided to get black wheels for winter so I could have a few months' relief from cleaning brake dust off my wheels every three days. :)