Thanksgiving Break

At my work place we traded Columbus day for the day after Thanksgiving meaning I get a four days off in a row. Initially I scheduled Wednesday off because I volunteered to cook the Thanksgiving feast; however, my cousin Sonya in Lakeland wanted everyone to come to her house. This worked out great because the plague hit my work and we were crippled by low attendance at work so taking Wednesday off would have been canceled anyway. (Really low, like only 32% of people one day.)Well, the plague hopped from work to friends and family because cousin Lea was too sick to drive over to Lakeland so thanksgiving dinner was moved to cousin Erica's which was OK by me because she only lives 10 minutes away. Sadly, Lea still wasn't up to joining us but Erica was able to invite her neighbor who lost his wife a couple years ago AND Aunt Mary joined us.

Aunt Mary & mom in front, cousins Sonya & Erica in back

 

Uncle Larry and cousin Lea's husband Don (Sonya & Erica's dad)

 

Gathering to say the blessing so we could eat! Erica's neighbor BJ, hubby Jerry, Uncle Larry, Erica's coworker Aaron and her sister Kelly, Sonya and her husband Tommy, Erica's daughter Sarah, and mom and Erica in the foreground with their backs to me.

 

We had a traditional thanksgiving feast of turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, dressing, deviled eggs, cranberries, desserts corn plus a tasty Indian rice dish brought by Erica's neighbor.

 

The next day mom and I cooked a turkey with the all the fixing again at my house so that we had leftovers. This has become a tradition to redo Thanksgiving if we go somewhere. Jerry loves cold turkey sandwiches and I love figuring out new leftover turkey recipes each year. We had one of Jerry's coworkers over since he's in retail and they and they had to work the Friday following thanksgiving.

Hope yours was great and spent with those important to you. 

Inverness Florida

Mom and I spent the weekend in Inverness. We went to visit my Aunt Mary and Uncle Larry in nearby Beverly Hill which, incidentially, makes them the Beverly Hillbillies!
I stopped and took some photos at City Park and the nearby old-town historic district. The sun was so bright that some are not worth sharing. The first is the City Park and Cooter Pond mascot. I was reading a sign that says next week is their local Cooter festival. For those that don't know, a Cooter is a turtle.

The trees were covered in Spanish moss. Normally it looks cool to me (as in temp) because it sways in the breeze but with Halloween decorations out, it looks kinda spooky.

Here's a close up of some that fell out of a tree. I didn't touch it because someone once told me it has these little red bugs in it, similar to fleas. I don't know if that's true but I want nothing to do with biting bugs thank you.

There is a gazebo, board walk, and what I would call a small lake but it is a pond.

Photo taken from the gazebo - you tell me, pond or lake?

You don't have to tell me twice!

Looking up at the gazebo construction.

The trail is measured and marked.

Next we headed a block or two away to the old town. It has a courthouse that is on the registry of historic places. This is where the sun was glaring so I couldn't even see what I was shooting. This is the best of the worst.

Ending with a lovel oak covered in Spanish moss.

Aunt Mary

I haven't been blogging much because I have been working hard on genealogy. I tend to get tunnel vision when I do family research. In sorting through boxes of stuff, I found these old photo (click on for larger view).

These photos are of my mom's sister Mary. The upper left photo is her with her parents a.k.a. my grandma & grandpa Barnes. The upper right one is with her husband Larry although they probably weren't married at the time. They recently celebrated their 50th anniversary.

The bottom left photo looks like Uncle Larry is putting a ring on her finger. Could it be an engagment photo? I'm thinking the one on the right is prom as there were many of her in the same dress and flower taken at different locations - no date int he photos though. Wonder what that means? Humm.......

I guess these photos will tell me if she checks my blog! LOL