Thanksgiving, it's what's for dinner

First, thank you for the kind words and prayers from my last post and on facebook.  Kelley's aunt passed yesterday about 2:30 am in the hospital with her husband and sons by her side.  She had an acute Leukemia that spread into her lungs and labored her breathing too much.  The funeral will be on Wednesday in Fayetteville.

Here's a picture of Aunt Johnnie with our niece Kaileigh from one of the kids birthday parties last year.  She will be greatly missed.

Thanksgiving turned out really nice.  Kelley's mom and Gene were staying with us, and her sister and Kaileigh came up to visit as well.  We also had our good friend Kayte and another friend of hers come over as well.  Andrea turned out to be really sweet, we ended up spending the whole weekend with them.  Kaileigh stayed with us through the weekend as well which is also always pleasant.  The worst part was that we didn't get any pictures!

The dinner was fantastic.  Turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pie, more pie, sangria, and more pie.  Way too much food for the 8 of us.  That's usually the way thanksgiving goes.  We made sure to have that much food just in case any other family wanted to get out of the hospital or if Johnnie wasn't feeling up to having visitors that day.  Turns out she was, so the rest of the family stayed with her.

Friday we did not participate in any black friday madness.  We did get caught up in some of the traffic however, going to meet Kayte and Andrea and the kids for lunch at an Olive Garden.  Then Friday night we had Kaileigh babysitting all four kids while we went out downtown to hit the bars!  It was embarrassingly fun. (that means I'm sure I made a total ass out of myself but can't really remember what I did.  But I'm sure it was wrong)

Saturday was a whole lot of recovery (read: hangover).  I did make it out to scout a trail that goes around a lake that was recommended by another friend.  The biggest surprise here was that I was actually able to find the lake, and a parking area in the state park, and the trail itself.  I am directionally challenged.  There are 2 miles of paved trail and about 6 miles of unpaved trail around this lake, so this looks really cool.  I found a better parking lot while I was out there, and this trail was as advertised.  Mostly flat with enough hills to really crush my abs if I take them too fast.  I only ran one loop, but I certainly took it too fast.  Kelley ran 19 miles on saturday so she had the garmin, but I am really looking forward to hitting this lake again.  I think the loop is 2.1 miles (need garmin confirmation) and the unpaved can go for quite a while.  Longtime readers will remember how much I used to enjoy running around the lake at Furman when we lived in SC, it was a 1.1 mile loop with a 2.3 mile trail option.  I think we may have found a winning replacement here.

Sunday we headed down to Asheboro for a Maness family thanksgiving with Kelley's dad's side of the family.  Finally, there were some pictures taken but not by us.  And I don't have copies yet.  It was also a blast.  Turkey, ham, more food than 30 people could possibly eat.

Hope your holiday was that much fun!