Thanksgiving 2011

I flew into St. John's Saturday at 12:40 p.m. The plane was supposed to arrive at 12:30; it took a bit of work to calm Trace down as she was quite set on going and telling the pilot off for being late. But as they say, better late then never! We had a nice relaxing afternoon Saturday and that evening went over to Alex and Priya's place downtown to have some scallops, nachos and few drinks with Alex, Priya, Jess and Sam.

Me, Trace, Jess, Sam, Alex and Priya

Sunday was Thanksgiving. We got up bright and early (ok, maybe not that early, but did get the turkey in the over only 30 min later then planned) to prepare our bird for the 11 adults and 2 children we had coming over that evening. Alex and Priya came over a little later to help. Priya made a delicious vegetarian Shepherd's Pie and an Apple Pie for dessert while Alex was put to work peeling vegetables. Trace and I, after getting the bird all dressed and in the oven cooking, went over to Bowring Park for a nice walk. It was a lovely walk but the end of it was a little rushed as we had to get back to the car then go for a quick run into the grocery store before returning to the house around 3:30 to start the vegetables cooking for the guests who were due to arrive at 4.

I had planned to take some pictures of the turkey and meal but we were kept very busy and I never quite got around to taking pictures. All in all, we felt it was a huge success! Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal. Jess and Sam arrived first and were followed shortly after by the rest: Tammy, Tonia and Johnny, Sab and Norm and their two kids Devin and Samantha. Our guests provided wine, a pumpkin pie and a white cake (which turned out to be chocolate much to Devon's dismay). Tonia stepped in to help prepare the gravy in a kitchen which was scurrying with activity. Finally everything was ready and served much to everyone's enjoyment. I'd like to give special mention to our stuffing that we made from scratch which, in the words of Jess, looked gross but tasted good.

After dinner Alex, Priya, Jess and Sam laid down for a nap while the rest of the guests departed. I developed a very deep and long lasting appreciation for dishwashers that evening. After everything was tidied away, we were ready for a nap ourselves. That was not to be however as Jess appeared then and roused the rest of the crew and we had a tightly fought game of scrabble. Alex and Priya came out the victors, but I suspect Alex may have brought Priya in as a ringer so we shouldn't get too carried away with the congratulations. After Scrabble it was time for Jess and Sam to depart. We then began another game, one that allowed us to really demonstrate our intellectual skills. It was another well fought match as one person would manage to climb a ladder and leap ahead of the others only to land on a snake and slide back down to the bottom of the pack. We were all very closely matched in skill and the game turned into something of a marathon. In the end I can't remember who ended up winning, but there was much relief by all that the competition was over as the intellectual strain was wearing us all down. (Editor's note: I won BTW!!!!!)

That brought to an end a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. Everyone needed to get to bed as we had to take Priya to the airport to catch her 5:50 flight back to Toronto on Monday morning. I feel I need to comment at this time on Priya's fashion sense - I would never have believed it possible to pull of the whole rubber boot look the way she can. She made a pair or rubber boots look stylish. I don't know how she did, but she did.

After returning from the airport, it was time to catch a few more zzzz's as the sun had not even risen yet. Much later that morning we returned to the world of the conscious and went for a lovely hike with Summer.

Our timing was impeccable as several brief but heavy rain storms were moving through the area Monday Morning, but when we started down the trail, the last of them had passed by and the sun was out to accompany us on our way. Some of the people we passed coming out of the trail as we were entering had not been so lucky.

Summer was very happy to be going on the hike with us, and also very curious about my camera.

Summer checking out camera

 The trail meandered along the rugged coastline providing many gorgeous views of the ocean.

We climbed down onto the rocks and had a nice lunch.

After lunch Trace demonstrated her rock climbing skills

to get closer to the ocean waves crashing onto the shore.

Afterwards Summer was obliged to wait patiently while Trace dried out her socks.

 And I was left just hanging around.

After the socks finally dried we hiked back and, after a brief stop in Petty Harbour, returned home for a rest.

Petty Harbour