Thanksgiving in Alberta

On Thanksgiving weekend, I was privileged to be able to fly out to Alberta and be with family. Usually I'm spending Christmas with them, so I don't get to go out there for T-giving, however, this year I'll be in Malaysia with my sister Jodi and her family, so I wanted to see my parents and my sister Carolyn and her family before year end.

I flew out on a Thursday night like any other night ... or was it? When I checked in they told me that my plane was about half an hour late arriving, so I got out my book and settled into reading about what Jason Bourne was up to in that chapter. When we finally boarded the plane, I sat down in my seat and heard the two girls beside me talking about bringing their dogs with them and how they've had to put their dogs underneath in the cargo area before. Then I realized they were pointing at something under one of the girls seats, and this is what I saw.

Isn't he cute? His name is Diesel and he's a toy Chihuahua. He had a studded collar on and he was quite quiet. I asked her if she was allowed to take him out and she said no. I told her that if everyone in your row is ok with him coming out of his case, they should let him because he would've been so fun to play with, but alas, he stayed in his case the whole trip.

Finally, we got underway. Engines revving and wheels turning. I was deep in my book because if you've seen one take off, you've seen 'em all, wouldn't you think? Not this time. You know how fast you're going when the plane is about to leave the ground? Imagine going that fast and then ... slamming on the breaks! Yup, that's what happened. In the 10 to 15 seconds it took us to stop, I had 4 thoughts, "Hang on Mr. Pilot!" "This could be bad." "I'm glad it hasn't rained lately because then the runway's not slippery" ... and ... "Did we hit a cow?" Seriously! What would make us slam on the breaks right before take off? Well, apparently a light came on saying that a door was ajar. Hmmm, not good. The pilot came out and said to us, "No worries, folks. It was just a faulty sensor. Sorry about the violent stop everyone. A technician will come and look at it and we'll be off and running in 10 minutes." I turned to the girl beside me and said, "Let's time him, shall we?" An hour later, we were on our way to Edmonton.

My sister met me in Edmonton at 12:45 am and we headed to our hotel. Her and I had decided that since I was getting in late on a Thursday and the kids would be in school the next day, why don't we just stay in a hotel and then go into Edmonton and do some shopping on Friday? We had a fun sister's day out, shopping, eating and chatting. I was too busy doing all of those things to take any pictures.

Friday evening we headed back to my sister's place and I got to hang out with my niece (Bailey) and nephew (Clay). They have Playstation 2 and Clay had the game Guitar Hero that I've heard so much about, so I had to try it out. I do have video of me playing it, but trust me, it's not pretty. You'll have to settle for the pictures.

I only played a few times on the Easy setting, therefore, I mastered nothing.

Now, Sing Star was another story. We stopped in at their friends house to see their new puppy, but while the kids were in their friends room, I sauntered in to see what they were doing. They were playing Sing Star and let me tell you, it looked like a lot of fun. It's pretty much Karaoke, but you sing against each other. You each have a bar on the screen where you should be singing and if you're too high or too low, you get less points and you have to hold the note for the whole bar. I stood and watched the kids for a bit and then they showed me that there was a U2 song as one of the options. Yeah, just try and get that microphone away from me after that. Too much fun! We went to the store the next day and I bought it for Clay and Bailey. Ok, I'm an adult so I know how to maybe hold a tune a bit better, but I kicked their butts!!! I was surprised they even let me play with them the second day because I won all the time. :) I tried to throw a few of the games, but when you have a mic in front of you and you're finally not embarrassed to sing (I would probably never play this game with friends because I'm really not very good), you can get quite competitive. But we had a lot of fun. Next time I'm buying the 80s version and I can challenge my sisters!

Bailey wanted to show me her Halloween costume. I'm not 100% sure what she is, but I think it has something to do with a princess and a pink wig ... or maybe a fairy with a wand. Either way, she's very cute.

Then she wanted to show me the easel she had gotten and wanted to draw me a picture. She asked me what I wanted her to draw and I said, "A dog." "No, not that, Auntie Fiona." "Ok, a horse." "No, not that, either." "Ok, how about you draw me something YOU want to draw?" "Ok."

Kids are funny.

So, she drew me a goalie which is now proudly displayed at my desk at work.

I just had to put in this picture of Bear because he's so cute!

Sunday after church the preparation for the Thanksgiving dinner began. My brother-in-law (Fred)'s family live nearby, and they came as well, so we had a FULL house. While the women were inside getting ready for the meal, the boys were outside quading ...

and playing Wing It (my Dad saw it somewhere and decided he could make his own rather then spend the $$$ - he's so Mennonite).

I've heard this game has a few other names as well, like Horse's Balls ... hmmm, I wonder where that name came from?

Sorry, too graphic? :)

Actually, not all of the guys were "horsing" around. One of Fred's brother's deep fried the turkey outside.

Let the feasting begin!

Although the turkey was yummy, my favorite was the ham. It melted in your mouth and was so moist and salty. Mmmm, Mmmm, MMMMMMMMM! I had a LOT of food that day. Yes, I went for seconds and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I also had a piece of pumpkin pie for dessert ... because I wanted to. :)

Afterwards, I saw the dogs doing this outside ...

and it pretty much summed up how we all felt. I think we all slept pretty good that night!

I had a wonderful time with my family even though you'd never know it by the lack of pictures of my Mom, Dad, Sis and Bro-in-law. Weird. I have no idea why I have no pictures of them. Too much chatting and not enough picture taking, I guess, but talking with the fam can never be a bad thing. I think my family is pretty honest with each other and I like that. No, we don't talk every day or share every single one of our feelings, but I know that at any given time if I need to talk, they're there for me. We love each other very much and on this Thanksgiving, it was a blessing to be with them.