Thanksgiving Weekend 2009

Fourteen adults, four children, lots of food, and a beautiful autumn day.  Almost all our children (see exception noted below), all our grandchildren, and guests from all our daughters-in-law's families gathered with us to celebrate the many things for which we are thankful.

Dapper in his cap, Max leads his mother into the celebration, a porter following with bags.

The older children (from left, Max, Reese, Finnley) gathered in the playroom to play with new toys and a whole bag of Goldfish.

The cap.

Beth holds a sleeping Parker Rose while Beth's sister Laurel and her husband Doug and his father Jim and his wife Sheryl and Doug's brother Matt mingle with Johnsons.

Reese entertained her mother Becky and her cousin Parker Rose, eliciting peals of laughter by running back and forth.

Anna's mother Maggie and I see to the gravy.

We stretched over three tables, one the first instance of a children's table where

Finnley, Reese, Max, and  MeMike ate.  The plate with the apple was set for the one missing guest.

Here is part of the spread.  Everyone brought great food.

Seeing the older cousins running and playing together was a thrill for us

and the source of high volume sound for all.

Finnley helped with the photography chores, assisted here by Maggie who kept herself level with the camera even though the windows did not.

Maggie and MeMike took their grandsons for a nature walk down by the river.

Becky brought her cousin Lisa who is in town to finish preparing her mother's home for sale.

The exception to full family attendance at dinner on Thanksgiving Day was Nate.  We saw him Friday at the hospital where he spent Thanksgiving Day (plus a  day before and a couple more after) being treated for an infection stemming from a dog bite he got Tuesday trying to rescue a dog he saw in traffic.  Read his account of it (and see lots of pictures of Parker Rose) on his blog.

Saturday we had Finnley and Reese with us while their parents helped Cousin Lisa with her work preparing her mother's home for sale.

In the afternoon, we went to the new playground at Berkeley Lake's City Hall.

And Finnley finished the afternoon snuggled on the couch with MeMike, drifting off to sleep.

Kaitlen Raymer is born

Kaitlen Raymer, daughter of Wahn Raymer (Ben's business partner)
and his wife Gloria, was born Tuesday, November 24, weighing 7 lb., 15 oz.

A visit with Parker Rose and Finnley and Reese at the Aquarium

We hung out at PR's house for a while, then took her for a walk in the park.

We took Finnley and Reese to the Aquarium.

After the Aquarium, fun at our neighborhood's playground.

Finnley & Reese at play

Here are pictures from the last couple weekends, 10/31 & 11/7, and as usual, more are on flickr.

Reese

Finnley

On the porch with MeMike last weekend

Finnley's [#3] Highlight Reel 11/7/09

(a work in progess)

After the game, the playground at Mt. Pisgah School

Later, Finnley gets a haircut while Reese naps

After the nap, a trip to Thrasher Park in Norcross

Recent Pottery

We fired a load of stoneware with ^6 glazes Friday and unloaded it Saturday evening. The firing was good overall, though the bottom of the kiln did not get hot enough and one piece needs refiring. Another piece did not survive trying to separate a top and bottom stuck together with glaze. Here are four of the better pieces from this load. They and the rest are on our flickr page with an explanation of the glazing.

A Grand Weekend

Over the course of Friday through Sunday, we saw all the grandchildren.

We started Friday with a midday visit to Nate & Beth & Parker Rose.

Saturday, we attended Finnley's soccer game with Gabe & Becky & Reese.

Sunday morning, we drove to Athens and visited with BenAnnaMax.

At the cabin with Stan and Cathy

We went to Morganton, GA Saturday to spend the day and night with our friends Stan Kreimer and Cathy Clements, as we have done for the past three years. We were joined this year by Harry Housen and Mary Jim Evans, friends of Stan and Cathy and now of us, as well. After the traditional stop at Mercier's Orchard, we headed up to the cabin, "up" being the operative word for the last mile or so of the drive, culminating in a very steep climb to the ridgeline where the cabin is located. We sat around watching Georgia have its way with Vanderbilt, punctuating the game with a brisk walk at half-time. After working our way through a host of junk foods, we enjoyed a dinner of chili and talk, and talk, and talk. We hung around Sunday morning talking some more and enjoying the view, hiked a while, then finished the visit with more chili. Here are a few pictures.

Early light.

Stan

Cathy

The view in front of the house.

Mike, Ron, Mary Jim, Harry, Cathy, Stan

Another view from the ridgeline

iPhone video of Reese

Photographing pottery

I used a photo-cube to take these pictures of some pottery I have made.  The color is a little off, but the pieces are shown without anything to distract from them.

No, it's not spousal abuse, honest.

And I didn't run into a door, either.  But I had a little oral surgery Friday afternoon that showed up as a small bruise Saturday afternoon and a somewhat larger one this morning.

Finnley and Reese at Fernbank

We picked up Finnley and Reese Saturday morning and headed to Fernbank Museum for an outing.  We all had a great time and stayed longer than we thought the kids would last -- they were troopers throughout.

Finnley and a friend in front of the museum.

Finnley and MeMike experiment with mixing the colors of shadows.

Finnley enjoyed the many hands-on science exhibits.

Reese liked the hands-on part, too.

Who is contemplating whom?

Enjoying the mirrored doors on one of many elevator rides.

It's clear that Reese is signing, "More," but more what is not so clear.

Reese in model mode.

Back at our house, Finnley continued the science theme.

Reese continued to pose.

Norcross Art Fest

We picked up Finnley and Reese for a trip to the park.  As it happened, the Norcross Art Fest was under way at Thrasher Park.

Finnley gathered his courage for a photo op with Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Mike and Finnley took a ride on a small train.

Finnley got hungry and we stopped for a corndog.

Reese watched the corndog for a while, then admired the sand bottle Finnley made for his mother.

Back to the playground, Finnley found one slide to be a hair-raising experience.

And Reese's big eyes took it all in.

Then we came back to our house for just a few minutes for Finnley to work with clay.

Ardrian's birthday party

After soccer and some more cooking, we headed to Lawrenceville for Adrian's second birthday party.  The birthday boy was in fine fettle

and so was Max.

With a fresh haircut from his mother, Adrian was handsome as ever.

Max had a great time with both his parents.

Adrian's Thomas the Train cake was a hit with him and his parents.

Finn Soccer 10/3/09

It was quite a family day and started with helping Nate load a bathtub into his truck.  Hope he got it home safely.

Then it was off to Finn's soccer game.  It's fun to see another generation of kids with shirts and socks too long chasing a soccer ball down the field.  Finn seems to do best with breakaways, where his speed lets him get to the goal.

On the sidelines, I chatted with Gabe and Reese.

After scoring a couple of goals, and running off the field each time to high-five his mom, Finnley seemed satisfied with the way the game was going.

Later the going got a little rough.

But in the end, oblivious of the score, which is not kept, both teams ran triumphantly through a tunnel made of all their parents.

We visit Parker Rose and her parents.

We went to Smyrna yesterday to hang out for a while with Parker Rose and Nate and Beth.  Parker Rose changes so quickly.  She is no longer the tiny infant her parents brought home.  She has beautifully plump cheeks and she smiles a lot and it lights up her face.  This is not baseless grandparental bragging.

We got to keep her for a short time while her parents worked on house-building chores, and Mike gave her a bottle.

Watching Nate and Beth and Parker Rose interact as a family was a true delight.  Nate and Beth's obvious joy in Parker Rose and the quickness and high intensity of the smiles she gives them brightened our day.

We also got a tour of the house they are building next door but inexplicably failed to take a single picture of it.  However, Nate and Beth have been providing great photographic coverage of the process on their  blog.

Arachnid dining

Mike brought my attention yesterday to a large spider web with a large spider just outside the office window.

Dinner was being prepared:  big bug wrapped in silk, still wiggling.

Today, the spider was still there, but not so much of the dinner.

And as I post this, the spider is sitting alone in the center of the web, looking in the window ... looking at me.

Signs of the flood

We missed the rain and the floods, but there is some evidence remaining.  Finn and I walked along the river today and I showed him where some trees fell into the river and created a new "island" of mud.

Farther along the riverbank, we found a picnic table that used to be on level ground but was washed up against a tree by the flood waters.

We found some interestingly etched plant leaves and Finnley repeatedly checked the consistency of the soil, finding the dry dirt of an anthill especially fascinating.

Home again

You may have noticed the previous post was Thursday.  Not much happened Friday, just some shopping - we got three tablecloths for the various sizes of our table with and without leaves inserted - and a terrific dinner at La Gondola, an Italian restaurant.  During the day, Mike and I packed and hit the beach a couple of times.

Saturday was dedicated to coming home - after a last lunch overlooking the water at Turtle Pier,

we began the long slog through the air transportation system -- tickets and security and queuing up to get on the plane and sitting across the aisle from each other and in close proximity to strangers for several hours and passport control and baggage claim and customs and security and more queuing and more strangers (this time, 10 rows from each other) and a train ride and baggage claim and a shuttle ride and a drive home.  That's why we've been giving ourselves plenty of goof-off time since then.

It's good to be home.

Thursday

This was a slow day, the slowest yet.  With no group plan, Mike and I drifted.  We went to the beach for a while, then went back to the Kangaroo Court for lunch.  We split a salad with goat cheese and (here's a sign we're close to ready to go home) a bacon cheeseburger.  We hit an ATM and wandered through a couple of shops and swarms of cruise-ship tourists on our way back to the hotel for a nap.  This was the first day we saw a cruise ship anchored docked here.

After another short visit to the beach, we gathered for dinner and went to Taloula Mango's for dinner.  My BBQ pork quesadilla was okay, but Mike's chicken in curry sauce with Creole rice was delicious.  Everyone seems tired because we all went to our rooms after dinner instead of gathering in ours for card games.  The week is winding down.