Thanksgiving by the seaside (Nov 27-30)

Greetings!  As you may have noticed, I've decided to do some posts about my different activities, instead of just mentioning them in one catch-all post.  At least this way I make sure I have PICTURES!! :D  We love pictures, don't we, precious?

Anyway, for Thanksgiving I went back up to the beach house in NJ that my friends own.

Remember this view?

It was so nice.  I got a nice big room and bathroom all to my self (the one Glen had for those in the fam who read this).  I got to play with a 3-year old, a 1 1/2-year-old, and a 9-month old.  Even got to relate to the 5-year-old with CP who is doing so well!  His body is actually about the same development stage as the 9-month-old, so it's fun to see them rolling around on the floor together.  Mentally he's much closer to a 5-year old, though, so don't mess with him! :D

That Wednesday night we went out on the roof and watched the shadow of the earth rise in the east:

Earth's shadow

 And the sun set in the west:

Sunset

Cold, but beautiful.

Thanksgiving day was spent getting ready for the feast (ok, I kind of bailed and watched the baby, but as any good parent will tell you, that's a huge deal).  I did help with the beans, though, and I did make my family's traditional cherry cream pie.  Yum!  Didn't have to call Dustie this year either!

All their local family came, plus some who were visiting.  It was nice to see them again (I'd met them 2 years ago when I came here before).  After dinner Helen, Glen (not my brother, the guy married to Jim's sister Kathy--freaky how many of their names are the same as my family's names) and I walked up to the lighthouse.  On the way we saw that some people had already put up their Christmas lights

Christmastime begins after Thanksgiving dinner

Barnegat Light Lighthouse - a functioning lighthouse.

There's a jetty just beyond the light house that we walked out onto.  It was nice and dark, so many stars.  I forget sometimes, living where I do, just what stars can look like.  The Milky Way, Taurus and the Pleiades, Andromeda and Perseus.  Orion started to rise too just as we were leaving.  It was very nice.  Ok, so it was cold and about 3 miles round trip, but so worth it.

Friday I spent making ornaments (sorry, no pictures), and Saturday we came home.  Got home early enough for me to get several things done even.  It was a nice holiday.  Kelly kept apologizing for her (very loud) kids, so I finally said, "Why do you think I come?"  Just teasing, but I still believe holidays are better with small children.  So much more fun.