Thanksgiving

We're just about to sit down for dinner with Madeline's family and Grandparents so I'll just quickly outline the events over the past 3 days. Madeline, Emilie and I flew down on Wednesday evening from Oakland Airport into San Diego. Madeline doubted we'd ever make our flight at times, but we cruised it, making time for a beer and burrito before we flew. We tried to help Madeline with her Berkeley essay, but still more to do before the Dec 1st deadline. Nice flight, drinks and peanuts a bonus.

Met by Greg and Kathleen at San Diego airport, where we tucked straight into a packed lunch before striding onto Big Bear; three hours, 11:30pm arrival. The drive up to big bear is very long, very steep and very tiring. Met by the gathered family, good to see everyone again. Time to catch up before settling down for the night.
Thursday = Thanksgiving. Found out from Wikipedia on Tuesday that it's basically the European Harvest festival but Americanized, (like the spelling mom? :-).

Got up nice and early, (woken by Chris and Jamal) then the boys went fishing, leaving the women of the family to prep the feast. Fishing was amazing, obviously we didn’t catch anything but it was so picturesque, warm and sunny.

Gone Fishin'
On the drive back from fishing, as we were deciding how much we could lie about the quantity/size of our fictional catch, we caught the women strolling around the lake, so we parked up and joined them.

Big Bear Lake
Back to the cabin for bumper pool, Super Nintendo (so cool! I remember playing SNES with Neil Sullivan when I was 10), Pride and Prejudice and relaxing. Thanksgiving food was brought out to the table; we gave thanks, and got stuck in.

After some pumpkin pie, we all headed down to a local school for the annual football game. The whole family got involved, including Madeline's 80 year old grandma who featured in one of the key plays leading to our victory! On the drive back, we spotted the sky turning orange, pulled into the side of the road and had an impromptu photo competition.

Sunset over the lake
As the evening set in, the competitiveness continued with a game of Pictionary; quite possibly the most frantic/disorganized/chaotic game I’ve ever witnessed.
This morning was a little more relaxed as a jigsaw took shape. I played with Chris and Jamal, we had some turkey soup and cleaned the cabin.

Chris

Greg Sweeping the Roof
The ride home was cramped but lifted by a visit to El Pollo Loco, (Mexican food). I played a little basketball, then Madeline and I went to see Edith and Don before bringing them back for dinner, and here we are! Mum, I’ll look into the Student loan, I hope everyone is well. Paddy/Tickle, we’re so excited!