Family Thanksgiving Gathering

November 17-23, 2023

With three grown-up granddaughters the Thanksgiving gathering has become more complicated, but we looked forward to Thanksgiving week with great anticipation. Jeff and Darla were able to leave Pearl River on Friday afternoon of the 17th and arrived about 11pm. We were able to visit with them and Marty on Saturday, but had the Memorial service for Dick Miller, long-time colleague of Rod at Georgia State in the afternoon. Jeff and Darla joined us for church on Sunday morning and we enjoyed lunch and visiting in the afternoon and anticipated the Thanksgiving gathering at church in the evening.

Thanksgiving Around the Table at Mableton First Baptist

At this point a little after 6pm we were relaxed around the dinner table at Mableton First Baptist for the annual dinner celebration before Thanksgiving. To get to this point Mark had come out from his Decatur home, Marty Dye had joined us from his home two doors down from us, Jeff and Darla had joined from Pearl River, LA, and Rod's niece Shirley Howard had flown in from Arkansas. Getting Shirley there had been the most complicated since her plane landed at 3:55PM from Little Rock. Since the time was too short to Uber her to our house, she scheduled the Uber to come to the church and we met her there very close to 6pm. So now we could just relax and enjoy the meal and the fellowship together.
This was a little earlier when people were beginning to gather in the Fellowship Hall of the church for the meal.

Although the main course was catered, the desserts were brought by the church members. With this wonderful display, we had abundant dessert prospects.

Monday, November 20

After a relaxed breakfast on Monday morning, Mark came out and he and Jeff added a new section to the fence we had built back in to replace the one damaged by the January tornado.

A large portion of the fall leaves had fallen, and we tend to leave them for Thanksgiving since in past years the girls had enjoyed playing in them. We did blow off a path.

Wednesday, November 22

Since the girls were not coming in until late Wednesday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent with visiting, shopping for groceries, and Jeff and Darla got in two swims at the Douglasville pool. We visited with Shirley and learned more about her writing and the group of authors that she meets with. Mark came out for part of the time, and Marty joined in when he was off.
Not even Rod had picked up a camera until suppertime Wednesday when we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Ashleigh and Elyse. Ashleigh was flying from New Orleans and Elyse from Baton Rouge.

During this waiting time they continued working on salads and some of the dishes for tomorrow. When Ashleigh and Elyse got together at the Atlanta airport, they were to engage a Uber to come to us.

We knew that Ashleigh and Elyse were very capable of handling the Uber transactions, but we were still pleased and relieved when they arrived about 7:30pm.

Elyse had been very active in making salads and other dishes for the Thanksgiving meal in previous year, and she seemed ready to jump right in.

Marty came up with games and snacks and they began to set up for game time.

Marty had brought along his new kitten, and it had zipped under the table. While Elyse and Ashleigh were hunting it, it had zipped into the den.

Darla enjoyed spending some time with Ashleigh and Elyse, and we realized that she hadn't seen much of them in the last three months.

They got into a game, and Brenda and Shirley observed.

Ashleigh has a side game going with the dice.

We enjoyed the time with Ashleigh and Elyse, and were waiting for Jordan and Luke who were still on the way driving. They arrived between 10 and 11 pm, so we had to wait for the next day for time with them.