life with the Griswolds: THANKSGIVING

Monday at work we began laying out the glass inlays for the rest of the outdoor bar that goes to Paton, Iowa but we didn't have enough guys on hand for the pour. It will take all hands on deck for this pour. We have three giant pieces, all with fibers that need to be ran through the caps. I know that makes no sense to you but believe me, it is complicated and labor intensive.

fibers ran, inlays down

So we poured some small pieces that will adorn a patio locally

one down, one to go

Monday night we decided to take Canyon and four of his friends out to dinner to celebrate his birthday. We always go out to dinner for his and Robyn's birthday. Last year Robyn chose Red Lobster and it was delicious. This year it was Canyon's turn to choose. He picked a place called Zombie Burger. Yes, I said Zombie Burger. Here is a pic of Canyon and his friends as they wait for their food..

Looking hungry

Oh wait, that was the wrong picture

Canyon, Hai, Derek (D-Lo) and Casey

It was really a nice place just west of down town. They had a rather odd burger menu though. Canyon ordered a Project Nemises. It said it had deep fried mushrooms on it. I ordered an Undead Elvis. It had fried egg, bacon, fried bannannas and peanut butter on it. (I got it because it was the weirdest thing on the menu). Robyn ordered the Flame Thrower. I'm not sure what she was thinking because the poppers we ordered for appitizers were WAY to hot to eat, so I can only imagine what the Flame Thrower is all about. When the food arrived I dug right in. I was surprised at how good my Elvis actually was. Canyon was surprised as well, not at how good his was but at the fact that it was just a mushroom burger that included no meat. He had accidently ordered from the vegitarian side of the menu. Lucky for him I ordered a double patty. I gave him one of mine. Robyn found hers a little to hot and offered everybody else a bite (I passed). Judging by the faces they all made I figure it was just what the name implied.

The real strange thing was the burger that Hai got. I don't remember what it was called but the bun was made out of deep fried mac-n-cheese. It also had bacon so really it was breakfast (bacon) lunch (mac-n-cheese) and dinner (hamburger) all in one. Or just a heart attack waiting to happen. Check it out..

might be due for an oil change

Tuesday at work we popped the patio pieces and began processing. The rock face edge is becoming quite popular.

natural looking

Wednesday I began forming a bar for a clients man cave. It has some unique pieces to it. We spent quite a while deciding how best to seam it together. In the long run we decided on a new way to do it. We are always trying new ideas and formulas. That's why we are on the cutting edge of this industry.

difficult to imagine the end product

The bar only consists of four pieces but they will be put together in a cool fashion. We did this same clients kitchen over a year ago. That one was unique too, it included a concrete wine bottle holder/bar leg. I wish I had a pic. Here is a photo of another piece of the bar..

another odd shape

While I was working I got a phone call from my brother David in Sioux City. He asked when I would be coming up for Thanksgiving. My mom and dad were hosting a big get together for the holiday. There would be 27 people there for the Thanksgiving week end. I told him I was leaving right after work. He said "Good, then you can help me fix the plumbing at mom's." It turns out that the hot water quit working. David said that the hot water heater was working and full but no hot water was reaching anywhere in the house. That's great I thought, just when they have a couple dozen people coming in. It turns out I'm not the only Griswald in the family. I offered a couple of suggestions concerning plumbing problems (as we all know, I'm no plumber) and went back to work.

After work I went home, showered, packed the family truckster and headed for Sioux City. Hai joined us on our trip.

The family truckster is not as roomy as we would like

We arrived at around 9 PM, and the fun was already happening. The water problem was fixed so it was time to relax. As with most get togethers with my family there was plenty of card playing. Texas hold-em is the favorite. My first game went south so I decided to try my luck at the casino. (or the boat as it is called around there) As happens all too rarely, I walked away from the boat with all my money and a little of theirs.

Mom had been cooking since Monday making pies, peeling potatos, thawing things and preping everything. So she decided she deserved to taste test the beer.

one taste test too many

THANKSGIVING DAY!!!

the old homestead

What a feast. I brought a 16 pound turkey that Robyn had recieved from her boss and a wild turkey breast that my friend Danny gave to me. My dad got a turkey from work and they also had a 26 pound turkey. All those were cooked along with a ham, a prime rib, green bean casserole, 30 pounds of mashed potatos, corn, stuffing, macaroni salad, potato salad, apple sauce, sweet potatos, and any number of desserts. With all that cooking you can see why mom did some beer taste testing. She did have a lot of help in the kitchen though and even more help with the beer.

mouth watering

Robyn helps out in the kitchen

the men hold down the chairs

The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Everyone went outside to play games. There was some two hand touch football, three on three basketball, bags (also called cornhole but I'm not comfortable with that) and a new game...count the cans.

Boys against the girls. Hardly seems fair (girls won)

Harris goes for three points

someone should rake that yard

Count the cans isn't really a game but when you have 20 people staying at your house and a dozen more visiting daily you accumulate a lot of aluminum and glass.

a small portion of returnables

here's some more, and I think theres more in the garage

Very late Thursday night, or very early Friday morning (black Friday) Canyon and I went to Walmart to get an X-box. Target had them advertised for $60 off. We had called Walmart that morning to see if they would price match. They said they would. Canyon thought that way we wouldn't get involved in a brawl trying to get one at Target, an excellent idea. Since they weren't on special at Walmart we would be able to waltz right in, grab one and dance out very quickly. It was easy to get one, but we still had to get in line with the rest of the shoppers.

This next part I am not too proud of. As we approached the check out lines we noticed one was kind of short, only about six people in line. I wondered why the people in the other line that went completely out of sight wouldn't get in this line so we just got in line. (While waiting in line, Canyon found a discarded x-box game he wanted so he snatched it up.) It turns out that it was one line that divided into two. But they all had carts full of Christmas goodies and we only had one item. So we held our ground. I could hear the nice lady behind us talking to her friends (intentionaly loud enough for us to hear) about how we had cut but she would let us do it this time. I could tell she wasn't happy. I never turned around.

After 45 minutes we finally got to the counter. I felt bad for the lady behind us because when it comes to price matching, they have to call over a manager. I asked if it would take long and the cashier said no, because there were three managers on duty. Doing the math in my head I thought that three managers for ten thousand angry shoppers wan't quite enough.

After an extremely long five minutes the manager arrived. The X-box was rung up at the reduced price and the manager left. Then they scanned the game and the X-box went back to the origional price, so they had to call a manager again. Another grueling 10 minutes later and we were heading out the door. I never turned to see the people behind us but Canyon said he looked at the lady during the manager fiasco and she looked pissed. As she glared at him, he let a sheepish grin crawl across his face. Then we ran away. I hope the rest of their week end went better. I appoligize to them here.

Sadly, the Griswald effect wasn't over. Friday, as my mom loaded the car with cans to return, she accidently locked her keys in the trunk. Her spare key was missing. As she searched for that, we tried to recover her keys from the trunk through a small opening between the rear seats using a flash light and a pole with a magnet on the end. There was talk of buttering up one of the small children and squeezing them in there.

gonna take a lot of butter

Mom found her spare, but it wouldn't open the trunk. David tried to hot wire the trunk button on the door but that didn't work either. Mike finally inspected the closed trunk lid more closley and noticed the key chain barely visible from the outside. We used a coat hanger to retrieve them and celebrated our victory by making more empty cans (if you know what I mean). At last count there were over 1000 cans. Seriously.

Mom felt silly for locking her keys in the trunk so Robyn tried to console her with stories of doing the same, many times. I collaberated her stories.

More cards, more boat, more food, more beer.

Saturday things started winding down. Several people started heading home. But that gave us some time to visit with some of my brothers and sister's grand kids. David's daughter Ashley brought over her daughter, Peyten. Here is a pic of grampa Dave and Peyton discovering her first candy cane

She's gonna love Christmas

David and I ran a bed over to my sister Diane's house that she had let mom borrow. While we were there we got to see Diane's son Kendall's son, Bentlee

they should make candy cane flavored binkys (Million $ idea?)

We took a tour of her house. It is a beautiful old house with some very unique shaped rooms and trim work. Diane's boyfriend, Sean was up for the holiday. He is currently working in Texas so it was nice to see him too

I think Sean would like candy cane flavored foreheads

Then it was time to pack up and head home ourselves. We were all loaded, we had said our good byes and everyone was crammed in for the ride home, but as luck would have it, we couldn't find our keys. I'm serious. Robyn used them to unlock the car and that's the last time we saw them. I knew they were at the bottom of the pile so we started unpacking. I think it was a relief to mom to witness this. She wasn't laughing but I'm sure I caught her smiling a couple of times. We located the missing keys and reloaded. One more round of hugs and we were off.

Mom and dad, happy for some peace and quiet

Sunday we went to church for the last in the series on envy and bitterness. To truly eliminate these emotions from your life you must learn to forgive. They played a ten minute video at the close of the service that has a powerful message in it about forgiveness. The service won't be on the Point of Grace web site for a few days but you should with out a doubt see the video. It's a true story of a man named Grover Norwood. I was able to find his story online. I've included a link here..

http://www.purposedriven.com/article.html?c=201724&l=1

If you can't click on it, copy and paste it in your browser. It isn't the video but it is an account of the story. It's sure to make you cry and feel incredible joy. And it's a lesson we should all learn from.

After church we went home, had some pizza and put a roaring fire in the fireplace, then sat down to watch a Lifetime movie. (Not my favorite, but I love watching a movie in front of a fire with Robyn)
There was someone else enjoying the fire and glad to have us home..