The Turkey Bowl

When I was growing up we spent Thanksgiving at my grandfather's house. My grandfather had a big old house that seemed to expand endlessly so as to accommodate the Thanksgiving crowd. I used to look forward to Thanksgiving not for the food, but for the cousins - older cousins that I would follow around and around and around, and younger cousins that were fun to play with. My favorite memories are of drawing with my cousin Deborah for hours on end and watching The Sound of Music on Thanksgiving Eve (I never understood how or why The Sound of Music was on TV every Thanksgiving eve for as long as I can remember). And, of course, the Turkey Bowl. My dad was the only relative who had every played football, but somehow he convinced everyone that Thanksgiving was for football, so we played horrible and hysterical football every year.

This year Thanksgiving was a fun reminder of my Thanksgiving's growing up - Oliver spent the entire time following my cousins' kids around and drawing with them. While not everyone was able to make it, all told there were nine second cousins for Oliver to play with - and to adore. It was so wonderful to see the next generation of family together.

Here is Oliver with some of his second cousins.


It was also fun to see the Turkey Bowl tradition continue.


A belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Projects

Oliver and Davis have been busy.

Together they turned the living room into a fort - I am sure it will be the first of many times the living room will be transformed. Oliver spent a surprisingly long period of time in his fort playing with his dogs and, apparently, having some snacks.



Davis and Oliver also installed lighting under the bookcases Davis built. Here is Oliver showing off his handiwork.

"Thanksgiving"

Davis loves turkey. When I was pregnant with Oliver the thought of turkey made me violently ill. For nine months Davis could only have turkey when I was not around. Since I couldn't suggest banning Thanksgiving Day turkey, Thanksgiving was a bit rough for me. Last year, thankfully, I no longer had my aversion to turkey. However, since Oliver was not yet eating solid foods we were unable to learn if Oliver liked turkey, or his in-utero disdain for turkey remained. On Saturday we hosted a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner and we learned - Oliver likes turkey!

In addition to, once again, learning that Oliver takes after his dad, we had a wonderful evening catching up with friends (who we really do not see often enough) and watching the little ones interact.


While our evening was fun, we did miss the Doyle's. While they appear to be having a fantastic time in Canada, we miss them and hope they will be able to celebrate with us next year.

Showdown at the OK Corral

I had to go to work early yesterday morning. That meant Davis and Oliver were on their own for a few hours before Oliver headed to Jessica's for the day and Davis headed to work. Here is the photo montage of their morning together. Photos and captions (and blog title) courtesy of Davis.

Getting ready.
Working on the boats.

Doing laundry the old-fashion way.

Mama?
Casing crows (although I think he meant chasing crows - but who knows, maybe Oliver was casing them).

Funny Man

Oliver thinks he is hysterical - in most cases he is right (and in many cases he is right, but I have to refrain from laughing because he is doing something crazy - an example - hanging from the dining room chandelier (yes, it did happen, and yes, he did manage to pull it down)). This past weekend he decided to share some of his jokes and funny business with his grandmother and great grandmother, both of whom thought he was pretty hilarious.