Thanksgiving

I'm a bad blogger.  Bad as in "I want to blog.  I think about it all the time.  Hey--I should blog this!" but I get distracted and forget, and not bad as in "bad-ass" or "that girl your mama warned you about."  (Is that sentence confusing enough?)  That's problem one: I'm ADD.  Problem two is that my mind flies far faster than I will ever be able to type.  And seriously, it's embarrassing how slowly I type.  After umpteen classes, I still look at the keyboard when I type.  I don't have to--it's more of a comfort thing--but I prefer it.  And I'm pretty sure no one's grading me on it anymore, and I like to think that St. Peter wont hold it against me when I reach the pearly gates.

Let's play catch-up.  As usual.

Thanksgiving was lovely.  We had Thanksgiving with Ryan's family earlier in October while his sister's husband was in on leave for the birth of their twins.  (That's another post for another time.)  Thus, we had a blissfully relaxing one-family Thanksgiving in Lincoln County this past weekend.  Well, as blissfully relaxing as  we Stones get.  There was, of course, an Excel spreadsheet detailing what foods were to be served on which days at which times.  That's right--we don't do just one meal on one day: it's a multi-day marathon with new foods every year.

Thanksgiving day (Thursday) was the deep fried turkey with Jack Daniels sweet potatoes and fresh cranberry sauce.  There was also homemade rolls and dressing as well as bourbon pecan pie.  Friday began with blimmeys (like crepes) for breakfast--with an assortment of fillings for your choosing, and leftover turkey for lunch.  Dinner, however, was shrimp and grits.  Not just any shrimp and grits, but shrimp and grits from the recipes of the Shrimp and Grits festival in Georgia.  Delicious!  Saturday was wild game night.  Yes, Dan Stone went a little bit crazy and ordered a variety meat package containing wild boar, elk, venison, bison and something vaguely antelope-ish.  I forget exactly what.  It was delicious--except for the elk.  Not so delicious, the elk.  Majestic, but not delicious.

There was also fresh venison as brother Ben landed an eight point buck in the back field soon after the sun rose Saturday.  Note: there's nothing like waking up to gunshot directly under your window at 6 am...  It turned into more of an event than usual: after field dressing him, Ben hung him from the raised bucket of the tractor (because we're classy like that, ya'll) and headed back to the house.  Problems arose when the tractor crossed from the back field to the front field.  There's a "ravine"--a small (maybe 5' deep, 10' across) dip between the fields which is part of a hollow.  As the tractor hit the "ravine," the buck brought the whole tractor forward, tilting it face down into the ground and sending the back wheels spinning freely in the air.  Plan B?  The whole house was awoken to assist in loading up the riding lawn mower's trailer cart (this is where we really begin to show our classiness) with cement cinder blocks to haul out to and weight down the rear end of the tractor.  It was hysterical.  There are pictures, but I would probably become the black sheep if I posted any of them here.

Dad also sponsored the annual Stone Graham Cracker House Contest.  I seem to have misplaced the other photos, but here's a sampling.

Dad's creation.

Ryan's--complete with wood pile, axe, and pooping dog.  That's my man...

I also snuck off Saturday night to go hang out with Lori and Lisa.  I forgot my cell phone at home and decided to just wait near the outdoor ice rink where we had decided to meet up.  No biggies, just me...waiting around a rink of small children...playing with my camera to look busy...probably looking like a pedophile.  Sigh.  While I was waiting, I bumped into my dad's brother David and his wife Charlene!  Funny how Huntsville is such a small city...  We were going to go ice skating...but Lori forgot socks...and it was cold...and there was great pizza and wine just around the corner. And H&M and Anthropologie beckoned.  You can guess the rest.  We did at least pose for a pretty picture, though!

And now we're all back in our homes (dorm, in Ben's case), anxiously awaiting meeting back up in a few weeks for more family fun...and more food.  Hope your holiday was just as enjoyable.


xoxo