Thanksgiving 2011

Houston, Barbara, Trey and Patrick Crowder



Last year I realized how much I missed being with family over Thanksgiving, so this year I went to Virginia to be with my daughter and her family, my son, my lady Lynn and her chihuahua, Tinkerbell, plus my former sister-in-law, Linda, her husband, Otto, and my former wife, Diane.  It was a fine celebration!  There was lots of laughter, food, drink, games, stories, a tear or two and lots of love.  I'm very thankful for such a wonderful family! 

Tinkerbell was a hit with the boys and everyone else for that matter.  She looks and acts like a puppy in spite of being nearly 2 years old.  She begged her share of snacks and did a fine job of policing crumbs from the floor. 

This was Lynn's first Thanksgiving without her children, so it was bittersweet for her as it was for Derick.  His kids were with his estranged wife, Kim, and he was missing them a lot.  Next year they'll be with him and, hopefully, back at the Crowders. 

Diane and Trey's mom, Linda, were celebrating their birthdays on Friday, which added even more to the festivities.  As they opened their cards, Houston realized that his Nana, Diane, didn't have a card from him.  His mom reminded him that it had been on the list of "to do's" and just didn't get done.  He hustled off to remedy the situation and did so in fine form.  In the pic above, his Nana, Diane, is looking at a card and his meemaw, Linda, is looking on from the right.  So here is what he did...

"Dear Nana, I hope you have a wonderful purple birthday Nana.  Tell Memaw I said happy birthday.  Purple love, Houston"  He was in a hurry and needed 2 birthday greetings 5 minutes ago.  A very funny solution to say the least!  There was much laughter and a few tears mixed in!  It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a very long time!  Until I got home. 

We got back to Fletcher about 5:30 and I was tired from driving, lack of sleep and general partying.  We had disconnected the water before leaving as a precaution against frozen, busted pipes.  After connecting the water, I came inside to discover a strange noise coming from the vicinity of the water heater, and there was no water coming from the faucets or toilet.  What the .....?  How could that possibly be?  After checking everything again, I came inside and depressed the foot petal on the toilet and a brown geyser shot up!  YUCK!!!  Thank goodness most of it went straight back into the bowl.  It was only then that I realized that I had connected the water hose to the black holding tank flush feature instead of the fresh water inlet.  The black tank valve was closed, creating lots of pressure in the tank and no where for it to go.  Once I opened the valve, the pressure was relieved and all was well.  Whew.  Catastrophe diverted, barely!  Now I truly had a lot to be thankful for!

Tomorrow we're off to Florida for the winter with a stop in Apalachicola for oysters.  Oh yeah!