Thursday

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. My reasons are three-fold: 1) It's probably the last holiday that hasn't gone completely retail and all-corporate and really, seems to me to be the only holiday that is truly about spending time with those you love. No presents, just family. Family and food of-course, which brings me to 2) the food. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, yams, cranberries, the green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, apple crisp, etc. I could go on for days. It's positively the best food ever. Ever. And 3) Thanksgiving usually means that I get to see my family and we get to play games.

I love my family and I love that I grew up in a family that likes to play games. Board games, chinese checkers, battleship, "bunko" (that weird game with the dice), cards, etc. My mom's family, the Von Seggern side, plays this fantastic game that we call "cantelope." Just imagine 10 people sitting around a table all trying to play solitaire at the exact same time, using the exact same aces. And you have to shout out "cantelope!" when you win. It's a riot.

Last Thanksgiving, B and I met my aunt, uncle, cousins and their friends at their cabin in the Wallowa mountains of Eastern Oregon. When we get together with this particular bunch of family and friends, sometimes the meal starts to become this thing we have to endure before we can play cantelope. We get fierce, we get competitive. Claire, you are hands-down usually the winner (only because my mom isn't there) and Judy, you always sneak up on us and win one out of the blue. How do you do it? Here's a photo from the game last year:
See my uncle Tim standing up at the far end of the table? Yep, that's blatant cheating right there. And everyone is blurry because everyone, right at this second, is trying to put a two of spades on the same ace in the middle. Oh, the drama.

Anyway, we spent this Thanksgiving with our good friends Travis and Jody. They hosted all the Nebraska orphans at their house this year and Jody cooked a feast! The best part? We got to play games. We made our way through a rules-and-regulation-laden sports trivia game and then the boys retired to the backyard for some games of another sort.
This is what they call Polish Horseshoes. I'm sure it has evolved over the years. I'm sure it has nothing to do with Poland, but I can definitely see the horseshoe connection. The object of the game? Throw the frisbee so it knocks the beer bottle off the other team's pole. Oh, did I mention this game involved beer? Yep, it does and really, therein lies the problem. Because it's probably only about 45 degrees out, it's windy and you have to hold a really cold beer. No problem!
Jody, Travis? Thank you so much for being part of our family. We had a great time with you on Thursday and we are so thankful to have friends like you in our lives. Oh, and B thanks you for the glove.