Thanksgiving Photos and Mila's Birthday

Thanksgiving was wonderful with Nicole and Jordan hosting. Jordan smoked a turkey, plus several other turkeys were cooked and brought to the dinner. Greens, gravy, corn, green beans, scalloped turnips, mashed potatoes, stuffing, homemade rolls (by Ford), hash brown casserole and macaroni and cheese! I may have missed a few dishes, it was a HUGE dinner!Plus Nicole had the house decorated for the holiday and for Mila's second birthday party.
Cupcakes for Mila (my pecan pie next to it):

The cute invitation Nicole sent out:

Jordan smoking the turkey:

The outdoor seating (Jordan's homemade bench seating) plus lots of tables with kid friendly coloring table cloths:

AA and Remy being friendly:

Dawn with Cathy:

Leaa with cousin Dawn and Leaa's Mom, Cathy:

The birthday girl:

Nice decorations, plus many banners:

Nicole's MIL, Nancy carving the turkeys:

Dylan wanted to read books to Mila:

Christa and Mila:

Mila opening her gifts along with many helping hands!

Singing Happy Birthday:

Eating a birthday cupcake (plus there was a beautiful cake):

Dylan chatting with Mila:

Intent on what Mila got for her birthday gifts:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Day Photos - Dylan and Mila

Our Grands had a fun day at Nicole and Jordan's house for Thanksgiving Dinner; it was cool (55 degrees) but sunny, so most everyone spent some time outside. I caught Dylan chatting with birthday girl Mila; Dylan was very intend on explaining something to her!
Here's the collage and below the individual photos.

So sweet!

Double sweetness:

No Black Friday for Us! Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

This past Monday morning, with two sick people in the house, I decided to make pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. I roasted a pumpkin before Halloween and had the frozen pulp. AA agreed to try them for breakfast (in between her coughing!). They were yummy (recipe at bottom of post). I did use only 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1/4 cup less milk and added 2 more tablespoons of pumpkin; which made them slightly dense, but I don't think they were a fluffy pancake recipe to begin with. The batch made ten pancakes, about 4 inch circles (medium size, much bigger than silver dollar pancakes, and much smaller than the huge ones you see in restaurants). Double the spices if you like a stronger pumpkin pie taste.

Real Maine maple syrup! (AA prefers honey on hers). Not too much, don't want to drown the pumpkin flavor!

The mess and first pancake cooked:

Cooking:

Here's the recipe from Martha Stewart 2006:

For a spiced breakfast treat, whisk 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt; 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg; and a pinch of ground cloves. In a separate bowl, stir together 1 cup milk, 6 tablespoons canned pumpkin puree, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and 1 egg; fold mixture into dry ingredients. Melt some butter in a skillet over medium heat; pour in 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook pancakes about 3 minutes per side; serve with butter and syrup.
Makes 8 to 10.

Thanksgiving - Thankfulness!

We are a very blessed, fortunate, lucky, happy, healthy family; we could make many lists of what we are thankful for:
Family love and fun; don't they go together? We are happy to be around each other and certainly tolerate each other much better than most families. Any heavy discussions? Just pass the glass of wine along with the good conversation!
For our children and grandchildren; again family is our life.
For jobs and a work ethic that got us to the point of being able to to live comfortably; for prosperity and for enough money to have fun (refer to family and fun!).
For our church and FUMCH families, for those who pray for each other, for those living for Christ.
For clean drinking water, for clean air, for the sunshine on our faces! For each morning sunrise and each day's sunset.

And we are thankful that Nicole and Jordan are hosting our large extended family for this Thanksgiving holiday. Plus, it is Mila's birthday party!
Happy Thanksgiving!

The End of the Key West Trip

A few final photos from Key West. Now to upload photos and make a book; have to remember all the great memories! Until next time......

Maybe Key West bound in 2021?

Amelia Island - Oak Marsh - A "Bust" for Us!

The U. S. Kids Tour took us to Amelia Island Oak Marsh again (first time was August 2013). This time, the Sunday tee times were early and the hotel offered us a very special, low rate. Many of the families headed up on Saturday for a practice round; preparing for Sunday.
Our mid-week routine was interrupted when AA came down with a low grade fever. She rarely gets sick, and when the next morning, she seemed fine, off to school she went. Thursday night and Friday the fever came back and left again. A residual cough which has continued through today is still with her. We were on the fence about having her play this weekend, but she seemed well enough and trying to get her to rest or nap is impossible. So we made the drive, met up with the Sorge's and then it hit Ford. The flu seemed to sneak up on him, but he tried to ignore it until Saturday night. With the colder, windy weather on Sunday (today) and not really wanting to get AA out in it with her left-over-cold; we checked out and headed home. Ford's illness was a sign to get the two sickies home to recuperate.
The Oak Marsh golf course is challenging and beautiful; the Amelia Island Plantation Resort was wonderful, we wish we were there longer (and healthier) to be able to enjoy the beautiful pools and beaches, the shops and nature center, the fun tours, etc. Maybe next time!
Photos from the first nine holes practice round yesterday; it was sunny and 80 degrees:

The view from our 6th floor room in the Sunrise building:

AA was a good patient, at least she feels well enough to do some reading and artwork. Hoping for a healthier tomorrow!

From our Facebook post:

We are home, both sickies in bed. Ford is by far the worse with chills and fever. We are so sorry that we were around a few families yesterday; I am so hoping they don't catch what AA and Ford have. Here's a photo from yesterday when the pleasure of being outdoors, having fun with the Sorge's boosted their spirits (Ford did confess that by Hole #3 he thought he was going to "lose his lunch", so he was getting sick while we were out playing the practice round, but being tough, continued until later last night when he did get sick). Hope all have a fun day at Amelia Island's Oak Marsh course today. We look forward to seeing you in two weeks!