Thanksgiving - Ivy style

Hi all,

Hope you're all doing well.

This past month we've enjoyed Thanksgiving, a surge from the Denver Broncos toward the playoffs (fingers crossed!), another edition of the "Dump Meal" and Noel's 44th birthday. Last night, we went out to the Boulder Cheesecake Factory to celebrate together. All the kids had other things to do, so it was fun for the two of us. The snow was falling on the Pearl Street Mall. The Christmas light were up. The restaurant was quiet. It was a great time! Bummer I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures! Doh!

This blog's pictures will feature Ivy. She is our 3rd daughter, 13 years old. And a very funny child! The kids took some pictures of themselves "jowling." When you jowl, you shake your head back and forth as fast as you can while somebody is taking a picture of you. Some of the faces that end up as photographs are quite hilarious. I put them on the blog (hopefully they won't see them and kill me!) to show how how crazy our family life is. Never a dull moment.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Matt and Simone were out of town, but Mom and Dad, Mark and Steph, and all the cousins were able to get together. It's my favorite day of the year, and this year was no different. We started off with a fun (and very physical!) game of touch football with some guys from the church. Then Monk and I went out and had some hot chocolate at a local coffee shop what was open; that was fun. Then we came home, showered up and got ready for the Thanksgiving meal. My job is to carve the turkey every year. I volunteer for it because I know that I'll get first dibs on the turkey skin! Yes, turkey skin. Fatty, greasy, heart-attack-on-a-plate turkey skin. I love it. But others have figured out my ploy and have started to carefully watch me as I carve the turkey, so I have to be extra sneaky! Anyway, we had a great time.

We also went to Mike and Paula Fisk's house for our annual "Dump Meal." It's a low country boil, but we put tin foil on the table and just dump the food out and eat it like a bunch of carnivorous, pagan barbarians! It's great! King crab, shrimp, sausage, corn, potatoes, etc. We even try to convince one of the kids to try a large clove of garlic. They've all figured out that's not too smart, so we couldn't sneak it in on anybody this year. Anyway, it's always a highlight, and this year was no different.

Hope you are doing well. I'll update the blog probably after Christmas sometime. It snowed last night and the sun is out, so Colorado looks as beautiful as you could possibly imagine!

Dont' forget the pics at the bottom of the blog.

Take care for Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.