Thanksgiving, if it's not too late

I'm SO sick of big pictures of Seth (our last 3 posts), so I thought I'd say a few words. Aaron had the entire week of Thanksgiving off, so we hit the road to go see some family in the Bay Area and Ashland, Oregon. The trip had a bit of a rough start. Some background: we got in a car accident about a month ago that caused major damage to our Maxima, so our car was at a body shop for weeks. Unlucky little events kept delaying our car's completion. Finally, it was all done and I was to pick up our car the day before our roadtrip, but then I got a call--a disgruntled employee had stopped by the shop to pick up his last paycheck and on his way out the door, keyed our car from front to back, knowing full well that it was a big job they had just completed, with an incredibly expensive paint job process that the garage would have to eat. So, after filing a police report, the garage put us in a rental car for our trip and we took off the next morning. Half an hour into our trip, one of the rear tires blew into shreds on the freeway (we didn't even hit anything). Seth LOVED leaning out the window and watching Aaron put the spare tire on, while yelling "Dad! Dad!" Anyway, 3 hours later, the local Enterprise sent us on our way in a Kia Spectra. That Kia made me more thankful this Thanksgiving that we own a car that actually accelerates when you push on the gas. Thanks, Nissan.

In Gilroy, Seth had to visit his farm animal friends, as always--this time with a plastic bag around his leg so the chickens couldn't "sign" Seth's cast with their detritus. With the bad luck our family's been having lately, I hope it wasn't us who cast a black cloud on the farm because the next day some pit bulls got through the fences and killed a litter of piglets, and then a few days later a bunch of sheep. Those jerks! (Only us humans are allowed to slaughter those animals when we get a hankering for pork or mutton). Some of those animals were more like pets though, so it was pretty sad.

In Ashland, we had a great time just talking and joking with my brothers and their families, playing games, eating great food, hot-tubbing in my brother's yard (more of a forest than a yard) where you could see a million stars in the sky. Our turkey turned out fantastic. For you foodies: we brined it for a day, cooked it with butter-soaked cheesecloth on top, and white wine in the pan (which made awesome gravy). My mom's rolls are probably half butter, so they were delicious. It was a memorable feast.