Hooray for visitors! The house of four (plus one Lucy) swelled to ten for our first Thanksgiving in Alexandria. Dad and Elaine flew in for a few days with us then Gabe, Laura, and crew joined us for the big feast. We spent our time playing outside during the day and finding reasons to start a fire in the evening. Plenty of card games were had and a couple were successfully dodged (by those who shy away from the ultra-competitive card circuit that tends to form at family gatherings). We even managed a trip to the zoo where the kids all got their heads shrunken but helped a couple of baby cheetahs.

After three days of cooking and prep-work, the big day came and went. True to its name, our table was filled not just with fantastic food and drink but with a group of people thankful for each other’s company! A big win for the 24th! As the weekend winded to an end, we quickly shifted gears away from turkey and towards the next 24th.