Thanksgiving Weekend Was Nice!

The weather was so perfect this weekend, just right for Thanksgiving, with blustery, cold air and leaves flying around. Since we were going to be going to my sister, Gretchen's house for Thanksgiving, I only had to make mashed potatoes and a dip/veggie tray, so we could cool our heels all day if we wanted to! We decided to go down to the beach and look for a place to get breakfast, and happened on Coco's in Corona del Mar, which is a nice place! We split an omelet and from where I was sitting I could see people coming in and out all morning, picking up their pies. From there we drove down to Balboa Island and had a nice walk.

This is an old picture of Balboa Island, and that's Madeline and Abigail out there on the dock. We took this when they were out here for Camp Grandma a year ago, but this shows you where we went walking. I love walking on Balboa Island. When we got home, David helped me peel the potatoes.

Before leaving for the Steven's house we checked the blogs and saw that Heidi had done a really nice movie of how the house looks, right before their company arrives. The place looked beautiful! That made us a little late for our 5:00 dinner, but it turned out to be just fine. Here you see some of the guys at Thanksgiving, waiting for dinner... Uncle Elmer on the far left, David, Daddy and Jerry Stevens. There's my dip and veggie tray on the table.

My sister, Gretchen, Mom and me, all happy to be together. Take a look at the beautiful view of the lights out the window behind us. It was so clear!

We just had a nice time around the table, and here you can see that Daddy, mom and Uncle Elmer (mom's brother) are just relaxing and listening to others at the table who are talking.

Here's who's talking... David, Jerry Stevens and Kirk Stevens (my sister's husband). Lots of interesting conversation about World War II and other topics.

This table was more lively, with Anders here at the end and then, starting on the left, Chris and our Gretchen, my sister Gretchen and her son-in-law and daughter, Jeff and Heather Himes.

Chris and Gretchen again.

I love seeing my mom carefully cutting the pies she made. She makes the flakiest crust in the world! The one she's cutting here is apple, made from her own homegrown apples. My sister did such a beautiful job of making all the yummy turkey, stuffing, gravy and more, and setting everything up. Thank you, Gretchen and Kirk!

The day after Thanksgiving we took our time getting going in the morning then threw our bikes in the back of David's truck and headed to Redondo Beach. The ocean was perfectly calm and deep blue, and there were a bunch of dolphins playing around not very far out. We rode about 5 miles total, up to the pier and back, on a little bike trail down by the sand. You can see the trail in the picture below, down there at the bottom of the hill.

See that belt I'm wearing? I wore it to Thanksgiving, too, and Anders asked me why I was wearing it. I said, well, I like it, and he asked about it again, so I said it was kind of a decoration. He said, "like the Pilgrims?" Isn't that cute?

After the bike ride we headed over to Tom and Mary Cox's house (David's brother) to watch UCLA get beat. David's mom was there too, and of course it was lots of excitement! I took the leftovers from the veggie tray and Mary made some wonderful artichoke dip. Yum. They also grilled burgers. When we got home we put a fire in the fireplace and it's been going pretty much anytime we're home on this nippy weekend! Tonight I made this SCD legal Nut Mosaic Tart and took pictures of it. I'll take it to work tomorrow to share with the girls who are on the Pinning Committee. Ummm... it's good. We tried a little tonight.

Have a good week!