A Typical Family Gathering

Last weekend marked the Thanksgiving holiday. People gathered with their families over large feasts of turkey, fixings and pie. Some watch football. Some plot their Black Friday shopping. Some play football outside. Some nap. Some bicker. Some go around naming what they're thankful for.

And then, there's my family.

We used to do all of that above stuff. But, that got old. A few years ago, we introduced firecrackers into the mix and there was no going back. At another gathering there were Nerf guns. This year, we had both. It was awesome.

It all started with the traditional feasting. Complete with four different forms of sweet potatoes. Ella was in sweet potato heaven. She was quite the entertainer sitting at the head of the table.

After dinner and clean-up - the explosives came out. Some items of interest were gathered to be exploded and the family assembled in the garage. The first thing to be exploded was a fake crow leftover from Halloween. Ella witnessed that one and she was not amused by seeing what appeared to be a bird having its head fall off. She was done. Luckily, my mom also thinks we're a little weird so she was more than happy to play with Ella. Loran had a great time playing with the camera and its ability to shoot continuously, so we have hundreds of shots of things in various states of incineration.

Eventually, we ran out of firecrackers. So, naturally, it was time for pie. After pie, the Nerf guns came out again. Wagers were made, the science of foam darts was debated and hilarity ensued.

And here it is, Thanksgiving in one neat little slide show.

Just to redeem ourselves, we did all go to the Science Museum on Friday. And, if you can believe it, no one blew up anything! So there's hope for us yet. Maybe.