Thanksgiving, and What Came After

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! As per L------ tradition, we went to Handyman's BiL's house and met up with the rest of the clan. Handyman has 7 brothers and one sister, so a family get-together is quite a crowd! We like it, though.

Doesn't Peter look happy? It's nice to have photos of happy children. His smile does look a bit forced, though. Perhaps he was sick of hearing mommy say, "Smile, Peter, I want a nice, happy photo!"

Peter especially enjoys playing with his cousins. I think that child asked me every five minutes for a week, "Is Tyler coming today?". (But that's another cousin, Ben, in the picture. I'm bad with names, but I do know the names of my nephews and nieces - most of the time.)

Thanksgiving for Handyman's family is all about football. Food, family, and thankfulness comes somewhere after that, and I'm not going to put them in any specific order, lest I get myself in more trouble than usual. It doesn't matter how much snow is on the ground, these insane mid-western males feel the need to prove their masculinity by playing football in freezing temperatures. (They do it at Christmas, too.) Frankly, after they come back inside after running around for an hour, you'd think the smell alone would forever prove their undying masculinity. (That big dark blob in the center is Handyman.)

Here's the patriarch of the clan. Pops is very much like a huge, lovable teddy bear. He's also very, very big. I suppose that came in handy, raising so many boys. I'll never forget the time he tackled 6 of the brothers at one time. L----- men were bouncing off the walls, no mean feat, considering they're all around 6'2" tall. Perhaps he was thinking of the same memory when I snapped this photo. He seems to look rather pleased with himself, doesn't he? (And just a teensy bit naughty . . . .)

While we're on to the subject of individual L----- males, here's another one, Tom. He's single, ladies. Very tall, very sweet. Rather on the "strong, silent, side". (And, annoying as he can sometimes be, he is my BiL, so no snide comments as to why he's single!) Why is he pinching his cheek? Well, of course because he can't believe his good fortune as to make it onto my blog!

Okay, enough of men. Here's a woman shot. Okay, little girl. She's got enough attitude for a grown woman, though. I think she at enough food for three normal families. The child simply grazed all day long.

It was pretty funny getting her into her snow suit. I was afraid that if she fell over, she wouldn't be able to get back up. Rather like a turtle, huh? A crabby, don't-you-dare-mess-with-me sort of turtle. Hmmmm, yes, a snapping turtle fits her personality to a T.

Remember what I said about Thanksgiving being all about football? Playing football outside and watching football is not enough. Nope. It must be experienced through video games, too. It was rather interesting to see four big males squeeze into a tiny room to play something called "Madden".

Here's a cute photo of some of the little cousins. It's really relaxing to bundle them up and just throw them outside. They're rather like geese, in that they come back every so often to quack and eat.

All in all, it was a very nice day.

The day after, however was not so nice, as Peter, Banna Boo and I all got a violent case of the flu. One way of insuring that you don't gain weight from all the Thanksgiving food is to throw it all up 24 hours later. Not recommended, though. Not at all.