A Thanksgiving to Remember...

Several years ago my sister-in-law, Deb, introduced our family to Callaway Gardens' spectacular Fantasy in Lights.  It's a truly amazing display of Christmas lights set up along the pathway through their beautiful gardens.  It takes about 45 minutes to drive through on an open-air trolley.  (the BEST way to see it!)  There are several different scenes such as the 12 Days of Christmas, Jack Frost, The North Pole, The March of the Tin Soldiers, etc. and there is fantastic holiday music playing in the woods to go along with each one as you drive through.  So almost every year for about the last 8 years, we have traveled there with them and Jack's mom -- and usually THANKS to Jack's mom since she often makes this a Christmas present to all of us! :)  You can read about it here:

http://www.callawaygardens.com/info/calendar/calendar.fantasy_in_lights.event.aspx

It is especially fun to travel there over Thanksgiving and spend the holiday there.  That's what we did this year.  First we went down to Birmingham and had Thanksgiving dinner with all of Jack's family and Jim's (my brother-in-law) 91-year-old-mom, Charlene.  After eating way too much yummy food, we got together for a big game of Yahtzee.  I think at least 8 of us were playing, so it took a while!  We managed to talk Charlene into playing with us, and the funniest moment of the day came when she had one last roll of the dice and REALLY needed to get a "3" (I can't even remember what she was rolling for - maybe to be able to make the bonus score on top? ha)  So she looked at us and then looked at the lone die in the bottom of the cup, and proceeded to shake the cup, then look in at the die, and shake the cup again, and look in at the die.... this went on for a while until finally, she got the "3" she was looking for and gently slid the die out of cup to make sure it landed on the "3"!  Maybe you had to be there, but it was just hilarious to see her "cheating" the game in such a funny way... she definitely stole the show! :)   Then later that night we presented Jack's mom with a DVD of about 450 pictures that we had converted from several years of slides they had from the early '60s and '70s of Jack's family.  So we had fun watching old family photos that haven't been seen in quite a while.  And it really is true that about a quarter of those pictures are of Deb in a red dress! ha! :)   And the fashion, oh my...  ;-)   Here's a few fun ones of Jack and Deb.  (Jack will probably kill me for the last one...  heehee...)

 

 

 

We left on Friday morning and drove to Callaway, did the Fantasy in Lights on Friday night, and then came back home on Saturday afternoon, just in time for the Alabama/Auburn game, of course.  Roll Tide!! :)  We got a few good photos that I wanted to share and I'm going to include a few fun memories that you probably won't get unless you were there...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

And a few memorable moments:

You just THOUGHT you could check in where you always have!
Yeah, those cabins are right next to each other - sure.
And hey, do you see those cabins that are connected with a screen porch? Now that's nifty! ;-)
2200 Butterflies?  You could've fooled me....
Smile for the camera and no one gets hurt! (and we get this over with faster - ha!)
I'm sorry... everyone has to be holding their own ticket!
Blankets?  Where are the blankets?
I hope they haven't replaced Snowflake!
Wow... it's 3D!
Oh no... don't tell me they aren't going to play Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!
VIP party of 10?   I'm pretty sure that would be us!  ;-)
And one more time around just for good measure...
Who knew we had Mario Andretti for a bus driver?
So who's really bringing the VIP sign next year?  :)
Awesome Bingo prizes - yay Deb! :)
Tree killers!
Table for 10?  Really?
And finally --- drum roll please ---  NEW MANAGEMENT!

Just had to write down those because they made us laugh - a lot!  Really, it was such a fun Thanksgiving weekend.  And the realization is not lost on me that there may not be many more times, with Mackenzie already in college and almost yearly graduations to follow with the rest of the kids, where we all get to be together like this.  It was certainly a Thanksgiving to be thankful for and to remember.