We've been having a wonderful Thanksgiving!   We actually started celebrating Wednesday night, with Alex and Aja here for dinner.  Lisa also arrived late Wednesday night after visiting with friends, though long after I'd gone to bed, so I didn't actually see her until Thursday.

Thanksgiving morning I woke up at 4:30, but waited until 6:00 to start peeling/dicing potatoes for mashers (that was one big pot of mashers, though 'somehow' most of them got eaten) and then dicing up all the veggies for the 'tabouli'.  Once Tom appeared I let him drink his first cup of coffee before sending him over to the back house for the turkey.  It had been thawing in the refrigerator there since Friday.... but apparently 6 days wasn't long enough! So instead of going right into the oven it spent some time thawing in the sink in hot water for a bit.  

Always a crisis when Bobbi's cooking....

Lisa was a big help, and not just by making up the cheese plate and cutting up everything for the salad; she gave me a(nother) tutorial on my mini iPad.  I hope now to be able to listen to podcasts while I'm on the elliptical or steps at the gym.

We ended up being 11 people (Zach did join us), 2 dogs, and LOTS of yummy food; it was a great day with family and good friends. 

SO MUCH to be thankful for! 

Because the turkey didn't go into the oven until almost 10:00 we ended up eating later than planned. Unfortunately that meant that Lisa and Chas basically had to head straight from our table to his family's feast. I was so stuffed that I couldn't even eat any of the yummy desserts Patti had baked until several hours later.

I would have loved to take a picture of Lisa, Alex, Chas and Aja, but didn't want to 'spoil the mood'. (For kids who are always taking pix with their phones, it seems rather strange that they hate it when I take their picture.)  

So I just sat back and listened to the 5 of them talking and laughing at the Kids Table.  Did take this one pic in the morning, when Lisa was snuggling under my scrap quilt, which she really seems to like.  Still, she can't have my quilt!

When folks were getting ready to leave last night, 

Alex picked up my camera and snapped some pix.

Patti and Gary, packing up:

Their son Zach:

Alex zoomed in to take this one of me

and here's a selfie Aja took

This morning I picked up Lisa in Scottsdale and we did leftovers for lunch.

Afterward she and Tom looked at some of the pix on her phone.  

She got a lot of good ones on Thanksgiving, 

which she has promised to send me...

Here's MY first selfie - and since with my old-fashioned camera there's no way to tell what's in the frame I'm impressed that I actually got both of us in the shot!

When Alex and Aja got back from Black Friday shopping (they swore it wasn't at all crowded) they also enjoyed the leftovers.  I did talk the kids into letting me take a group photo (yes there was grumbling.)

While Lisa was sitting on the table with her head turned and her hair waved it reminded me of a pin-up photo from the 40s.  Unfortunately she moved when I got up to grab the camera so I didn't get that shot, just this one.

  After Chas arrived to pick up Lisa they let me snap one of them (where apparently it was somewhat of a miracle that he hadn't blinked just at the moment I snapped it.)

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, with family and friends. 

I know I did!!!