Thanksgiving 2013

Jerry & I went to Mom's for Thanksgiving dinner. Sadly, Marge just wasn't up to attending. We had talked it up the last couple weeks and her ALF had her dressed up and hair done but when Jerry went to pick her up she had nodded off and refused to go. We're learning you can't get agreement from her if you wake her up. He hung around a while hoping she would change her mind but, instead, we had our first Thanksgiving without her.

What a surprise when we got there. We were expecting cousins Lea and Sonja (with their husbands) but Aunt Mary and Uncle Larry were there too! Mom knew but didn't tell any of us. We had a nice meal and a nice visit. After dinner mom and I went to Michael's which is our Thanksgiving tradition. Every year I ask the Michael's staff how they feel about working Thanksgiving evening and they say they love it because if you work Thanksgiving night you get black Friday off.

Mom's beautiful fireplace and the garland we made for it last year

Me and Jerry

Cousin Lea and Don

Aunt Mary and Uncle Larry

Cousin Sonja and Tommy

The Thanksgiving table

More Aunts with a Couple Cousins Thrown In

This is one of the first sights I saw this morning - my wierd Aunt Hellen wearing rollers. Like that wasn't traumatic enough, she also wore them when we went to Denny's for breakfast!


I thought this was a lovely photo of Aunt Ola Fay in the lobby of the hotel where we stayed last night.

FINALLY Aunt Joyce and Uncle Bob arrived today. Now all the sisters are together. Whew. Joyce and Kunkel Bob closed their business to attend. Thank you.


Here is a photo of my mom and all her sisters arranged by age. You can figure out which direction that age thing goes as I am staying out of it if you guess wrong! LOL (L to R: Ola frim Arkansas, my mom Velear from Florida, Aunt Joyce from Arkansas, Aunt Mary from Florida, and Aunt Hellen from Washington/New Mexico)

Aunt Mary & Uncle Larry's daughter Elizabeth and her son Seth. They came down from Georgia for this special event.

Aunt Mary & Uncle Larry's oldest daughter Rhonda and her daughter Rachel. Rhonda came from Arkansas and Rachel from Tenessee.

Aunts

My mom, my cousin Leona (Lee) and I traveled to Beverly Hills today to see the Beverly Hillbillies, LOL. Actually it's Beverly Hills Florida and my Aunt Mary (mom's sister) and Uncle Larry will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on Monday. Hard to believe because they look like kids in the photo below. In fact, I believe their daughters may be older than them, LOL.

Mary & Larry, Dec 2008

Aunt Ola Faye, another of mom's sisters, who I hadn't seen in 15 years. It was fun catching up with her.

My mom with Aunt Hellen in the background. All these photos were taken in Aunt Mary's kitchen. Her kitchen is always so clean and perfect. How does that happen? I want one like that.

Lee checking out Hellen's grey. Everyone is amaized that Hellen has very little grey and is in her 60's (but you didn't hear her age from me). Lee is my mom's deceased sister's daughter but they were raised almost as siblings.

Finally Aunt Hellen, mom's youngest sister.

Tomorrow we should see another of mom's sisters, Aunt Joyce and her husband Uncle Bob. Also Aunt Mary's daughter and granddaughter should arrive before we leave for home. Mom's mother had 11 children (9 females/2 males) and those mentioned here are the remaining surviving siblings.