I was so lucky to begin the Thanksgiving holiday with a visit to my youngest granddaughter Raleigh's Thanksgiving presentation. She was an adorable little Indian girl and performed just beautifully.

Raleigh, the Indian Princess

From there things got quite busy. We made a trip to Fairfax, Virginia to visit my brother and his family. Our youngest son Eric and his wife Kristin came on Thanksgiving. They also brought a friend Chad with them. We always say, the more the merrier! It was good to see everyone and just have some down time from our active, busy, sometimes stressful lives. There was lots of good eating, too much football and more good eating.

Eric and Kristin brought the veggies for a vegetable tray, one of our family traditions. Looks like we're ready to serve the gang. YUM!

My brother told us he was making a deep fried turkey for Thanksgiving. We've never had one and Mark was especially looking forward to trying a turkey cooked that way. It was quite an adventure to get the deep fryer heated to the right temperature and getting the turkey dropped in. My brother had this adventure a couple of years ago with no experience or good direction and the oil boiled over and burned his arms. So this year he devised his own contraption to make sure it was safer. It worked out great and the turkey was delicious. I still prefer the old fashioned way though. In the oven and stressing about how I will find room to put everything else in the oven because I'm waiting on the turkey to get done. Old habits never die.

Looks like the gang is all here. Hard to get a picture of everyone at a big table.Amy, our hostess. Somehow she managed not to be in either of the pictures above. I think that was on purpose. Thanks for a great Thanksgiving Amy.

Eric and his Molly. He found Molly as a stray puppy when he was in college and took her home. He called me and said he found this little puppy and he couldn't leave her in the parking lot to be killed. I told him a college student couldn't afford a puppy but I sure am glad he didn't listen to me that time and kept the sweet girl. We all love Molly Moo!

I was able to visit one of my favorite places while we were there, Occoquan. It's a small seaport type town filled with every kind of shop you can think of and some very wonderful restaurants. I did a little Christmas shopping while I was there and a little shopping for me too. I dont' get out and shop normally during the year unless it's for something specific, so that was a fun trip for me. Also, I found something for my friend Evette that I know she will love. Everyone in the town loved it when they saw the head sticking out of my bag! Wonder what it could be?? We left my brother's house and headed to Beckley, West Virginia where my mother and two sisters live. We were going to make a quick overnight stop there to drop some things off and pay a quick visit. We had a great time on the way there because we took a route we hadn't traveled in over 20 years. So we got off the road several times and visiting small towns and shops. Mark just loved the quilt shop I found!!

The clouds were sure looking ominous as we got into the mountains.

We had a surprise when we got closer to Beckley. They had snow. So we have already seen snow for the winter season. They had a good 3 inches on the ground and the closer we got to Beckley the more snow there was. I tried to take some pictures from the car but not sure how great those are. Once we left Beckley, we headed home and didn't stop until we got to Winston-Salem, NC. There we visited another favorite shop, Salem Creek. Boy were they brimming with Christmas decorations and pretty much anything to do with Christmas. That shop was overflowing. From there, we started our journey home and didn't stop again until we got to Cary where we stopped for a quick bite to eat and then finally made it home. It's always good to get home. We love to visit and see everyone but it's always good to sleep in your own bed. Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and wish you many blessings for the holiday season.