Turkey Week

Last Monday James' parents arrived after an all night plus drive (15 hours) from Azle, Texas. Thus began a great week with family we don't get to see nearly enough.

Tuesday morning James and his dad got up dark and early for a day of fly fishing. Good fishing is one of the main reasons Dad H. wants to retire to north Georgia some day. That and good places to ride motorcycles. Oh yeah, and maybe because of grandkids too. Meanwhile Mom H. and I took the kids to the newly opened Babyland General Hospital, aka Cabbage Patch Kids Glorified Gift Shop. (The creator of the Cabbage Patch Kids, Xavier Roberts, is from Cleveland, if you didn't know. Our claim to fame!) They just moved it this week to the new location after years in the old one. And it was old. The new one is much nicer and more impressive, and much more representative of the monetary compensation Mr. Roberts has received as a result of his creations.

I wonder how many years away I am from getting pictures where everyone is looking at the camera.





They all wanted one, of course. I gave the customary reply, "Put it on your Christmas list!" No one did.

While there we got to witness the miracle of life. They start announcing that a mother cabbage is "dilated eight leaves apart," so we should gather around the magical tree if we want to be a part of the newest Cabbage Patch baby's entrance into the world. I find the annoucements updating us on the cabbage's dilation progress to be kinda creepy...but at least none of the little people asked me what it meant, so I'm off the hook for awhile.

Looks like Mother Cabbage is almost ready.

Oh, here's the head...a normal presentation...thank goodness.

Here she is! A girl! The (Doctor? Grocer?) asks the crowd for names, and two little girls dub her something like Madelyn Zoe. A clever "Mom, we gotta adopt her! I named her!" marketing ploy that has probably worked countless times.

This is an aside, but being present at a delivery reminds me that I meant at some point to recount my first stab at part of "the talk" with the older two kids. Only the exit part, they're still content with the "you started as a seed" explanation of their origin. A few months ago they started asking me how babies get out. I hem hawed around with the "special place God made for them to come out" explanation, then Shannon quietly said, "I think it's a word we're not supposed to say at the table." This is why old timers propagated the cabbage or stork stories, I'm pretty sure.

Anyway, we got to see the new baby in the nursery as she was weighed and dressed.

There were half-baked babies popping out of cabbages all over the place.



Fast forward to Wednesday. James' brother Jason and his wife Nelissa arrived from Austin during the wee hours the night before. His other brother Jared and his wife Laura, and James' sister Jennifer arrived from Waco Wednesday morning. Jennifer now lives in Austin but still frequents Waco. Tuesday evening some old friends of James' parents, Pat and Merv, arrived as well. That was our Thanksgiving crew, and we had a great rest of the week with them. A few photo highlights:

Jason repairs a few of Jennifer's dreads. Cause if you can't trust your brother to fix your dreads, then who can you trust? (If you don't know how this is done, you get a crochet hook and work all the loose pieces back in.)

Jared explains something to Jason, and I'm pretty sure it was about a guitar.

Mimi reads the kids a story before bed.

Avery puts on Papa's boots, and it inspires a weird moment.



He's really been into weird moments lately, amplified by the presence of a camera.

The boys with Aunt Laura.

Jason and Nelissa. Thanksgiving day everyone worked on a dish or two and we had a terrific mid-afternoon feast. Nelissa made dressing and pecan and pumpkin pies.

Jennifer made deviled eggs. We also had turkey (duh), sweet potato/apple bake, green beans, cranberry sauce (or canberry, as it's called around here), yeast rolls, and cherry/pineapple dump cake. I was pleased that there weren't too many leftovers. We had a very manageable amount once the crowd was gone.





Papa read a thoughtful reminder about gratitude. Elizabeth did her best to yell through the entire thing.

The grown up table. James, Pat, Merv, Dad H. and Mom H.

Some of the kids from the kids' table.

After lunch Avery attacks Uncle Jason.

Aunt Jeni and Shannon.

Everyone considered a nap but overcame the temptation. Since we have no access to stuff on TV there was no football watching. So, some did the next most obvious thing on most people's Thanksgiving Day agendas.

As James puts it, "celebrated our right to form a militia." Just before lunch some weird gray clouds blew in and dropped the already chilly air temperature about 15 degrees. It was COLD!

Jared gives his rights a whirl. (Hmmm, not sure we should talk about forming militias. Jared and Laura DO live in Waco after all. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Google "Branch Davidians, Waco, TX.")

Some chilly little observers.

It's a little disturbing how natural Papa looks packin' heat.

Jason, armed and dangerous.

Merv, Jared, and Laura. Avery was sitting with Jared earlier, touched his beard, and said, "Why did you leave the covers on your face?" It helps on subzero days like this. I was wishing I had a beard. That was my signal to go back up to the house.

Avery reads to Elizabeth.

And lo and behold, Mimi takes a turn on Guitar Hero!

Jason uses his air guitar to show her how to do it.

On Friday Merv and Pat left us, and then we left the kids with Mimi and Papa and Aunt Sherry (who came down from Senecca, SC for the day), and drove to nearby DeSoto Falls with James' siblings and sibling-in-laws.

And here it is. Pretty, huh?



The ominous sign that greeted us.

SEVERAL?!

We pressed through our fear and treked on. The trick is to stay on deck they've built for your convenience and safety.

Jason and Nelissa.

All of us.

Then as quick as they showed up, they all left. Sad day. Mimi and Papa headed out before we got up Saturday morning, and the rest of the crew headed west a few hours later. It was a great week and everytime we get together I think it's a shame the United States is so big and that families have to live far apart. We would hang out just for fun if we lived closer, and not just because we had to! Thanks God, for the blessing of family.

Saturday afternoon we headed out ourselves. We attended a wedding at Berry College in Rome. Two of our former summer staffers got married, and her family also happens to attend church with several of my family members. She and her mom and dad also happen to work at Strong Rock School. Lots of connections. The wedding was gorgeous and the reception was a blast. I didn't see Amelia at it much unless I was on the dance floor, because that's where she stayed. "I danced until I sweated!" she told us.

Amelia with Amory. A real live bride! (And a pretty one, too.)

Amelia dancing with Grandad.

Elizabeth danced with Grandad too.

She also danced with Daddy, but by this time she really just wanted down.

She was happiest cutting a rug all by herself.

She danced and twirled and cried when I picked her up to leave.



We spent Saturday night in Rome. It's my old stomping grounds as a Berry student and Camp WinShape staffer, and James' somewhat too, since he spent seven summers working at Camp WinShape and the first seven months of our marriage there. The kids always think staying in a hotel is an adventure, which it is with four kids! Elizabeth slept in the bathroom in a Pack N Play so she wouldn't be distracted by the rest of us sprawled out all over the room. I only heard her about five times during the night, so it was a peaceful, restful one for me too. Or not.

Sunday morning we met our friends/ex-bosses from Camp Skyline for breakfast at IHOP, since they live in Rome. It was great to catch up with them and their family. We worked there for four years and were kidless at the time, so they enjoyed seeing the kids and watching us manage the crew.

After that we headed to Berry. Ty (one of our former summer staffers and a recent Berry grad) met James for a mountain bike ride.



Meanwhile I took the kids for a tour of mountain campus. I still love Berry. Many good years were spent there, and a lot of time was spent on the back of a horse. What a great place to ride. I left Berry with a diploma, and WinShape with a God-sent husband and God-sent life calling- camp! I was more than happy to be there last weekend, showing the place to the kids.

There are lots of photo ops at Berry. It's a beautiful place.









Amelia told me she was praying for people like Silas (our World Vision sponsored child) who don't have much like we do. She has a great heart. And it was Sunday, so what better activity to take part in?

And Shannon was toting around a huge log he said was a gun. More like a bazooka.

You can't be near water and NOT touch it. It's impossible at this age.

These noisy beggars followed us everywhere.



Elizabeth gave it up about 20 minutes into our walk. Must of been in part to her partying in the bathroom the night before.





Trying out our skills on a really big hill. This is right beside the historic water wheel on campus, which you would think I'd have taken a picture of. At the time I was thinking how touristy that would be, and it just didn't feel right. The same reason why I don't have any pictures of the humongous herds of deer that wander freely around campus. There were herds of no less than 50 deer in fields everywhere as we drove through. I always remember as a student rolling my eyes at the tourists who would slow me down as I followed them through campus because they had to look at the deer. It's funny how even after (gulp) 13 years since graduation I still feel like a part of that community. But I didn't roll my eyes at deer watchers this time.







James and Ty made it back off the mountain, and after a quick tour of the campus barn (where I got to see an Equestrian Team practice taking place), we headed out to Applebee's for lupper. (Late lunch/early supper.)

We hauled tired kids in the house after the 2 1/2 hour drive home, and got ready to start another week. I have pictures for the next post already, but I have no idea when I'll get around to it. Hopefully I'll get the ones of tree decorating festivities up before we take the thing down. They are loving the Christmas season. In Cleveland they've put up snowflakes on the power poles, and Avery looked up at one and said, "Christmas spiderwebs!" And that's exactly what they look like.

Last, another example of Elizabeth's ability to watch and learn. One of the kids forgot to tie up their horse when they were done galloping around the room so she swiped it.