Turkeys and Skunks

We had such a wonderful time in Snowflake, Arizona visiting John's parents for Thanksgiving. Because John had class until 10:00 PM on Wednesday night, we were unable to leave until Thursday morning. Luckily, the weather was gorgeous for the three-hour drive. We pulled into the driveway at 11:45 AM on Thanksgiving morning, to a beautiful new porch that is almost complete! We helped finish the last fixings for dinner before eating around 1:30 PM, with Mick and Donna (John's parents), Brian and Julie (John's brother and wife), Chelsea, Dallin, and Nathan (Brian and Julie's kids), and Catalina (the foreign-exchange student staying with Brian and Julie for the school year). It was a full house indeed, but Mick and Donna had planned ahead by making two humongous turkeys, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, stuffing, cranberries, and only five desserts. Donna must have spent all day Wednesday making cherry pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie, Reese's chocolate delight, and strawberry cheesecake. It was impossible to pick a favorite as they were all incredibly delicious. I willingly tried all of them over our two-day stay.

After cleaning up the dishes, we spent some time next door at Brian and Julie's home. They have a projector that plays their X-Box on an entire wall, so the family had a fun time playing games with life-size characters. We played lots of cribbage over the weekend, which is one of my favorite games from growing up. There is proof of me beating Mick so badly that I "skunked" him, or won before he even had a chance to turn the last corner on the pegging board. It was just a treat to play, since I rarely get to any more! Winning almost every game? Well, that didn't hurt my self-esteem, either.

Friday was a fun, lazy day. We awakened early and got treated to homemade waffles from Mick. Lunch was leftovers from the day before, and then Mick, Donna, John and I headed to Show Low twenty minutes away to watch the movie 2012 in the local theatre. It was very good and loud...I enjoyed it! After the movie we headed back to Snowflake to pick up Brian and Julie so we could have an adult date at Eva's, a scrumptious Mexican restaurant in town. It may seem as if most of the weekend revolved around food, and that is precisely what happened! It was great...my idea of a perfect holiday! John and I are now professional tree decorators, since we helped his parents, then his brother's family with their Christmas trees.

Saturday morning, we woke up to a cold rainstorm. I checked the weather to make sure no snow would be coming, and it looked like our drive home would be fine. We left around 11:45 AM after a nice morning visiting with family. Since we haven't traveled this year because of school, we decided to go all out and stop in Payson on our drive home to eat a burger at a local restaurant. It was fun to do something so spontaneous! I must have been hungry, because it was the best Philly Cheesesteak I have ever had! We made it back to the valley just after two and proceeded to unpack from the trip.

We really enjoyed our time with family. We don't make it to Snowflake very often. If the weather was as nice as this visit, we would go up every weekend! It was amazing...no wind and temperatures in the low 60s. For this time of year, it was incredible! Thanks for such a great Turkey Day!