A BH Thanksgiving 2008

In what has become a tradition now, we headed up the the BH to celebrate Thanksgiving. Our plan was to celebrate with the Sneathens on the real day and then

to celebrate again on Friday with Grandpa Lu, Grandma Dorena, Aunt Lisa and Aunt Bernice at Grandpa's house. It sounded like a good plan...

So, the Sneathens showed up on Wednesday with enough snow and time to sled the drive way a little. The boys played a lot of Star Wars Monopoly at Gret's push. That boy loves that game! Todd wasn't feeling well, so he stayed drink free but the rest of us, had some drinks (I'm not saying who had the most...that lush will remain nameless.)

On Thanksgiving Day Reece made the table decorations while Dan got the turkey going and Shel and I did the rest. We made our famous sweet Italian sausage and mozzarella stuffing along with the traditional mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (or were they yams? It's debatable!), rolls, cranberry sauce, and of course pumpkin and apple pie! It was a feast. Everyone yummed it up. Even Todd whose health had taken a turn for the worst. After dinner, Zachary, Gret and Reece entertained us all with a Webkinz comedy show, while Daniel kept up a Candyland marathon and did his own magnifique rendition of a Thanksgiving song. Oh yeah, and Todd started hanging out farther and farther away from us...quarantining himself. Before the night was over there was charade playing and a Shrek Dance Party, too. Good times.

On Friday morning, Todd awoke with according to Daniel "red menace in his eyes!" Pink eye alert! Lucky for him I had an extra bottle of pink eye medication in my toiletry case. So the Sneathens took off for GR and a walk in clinic. Poor Todd.

We hung out for a while, then went into town to rent a video, and pick up a few things before heading to Grandpa Lu's for round 2 of turkey.

Let me just start this section off by saying before we left to go up north, I went to Belle Tire to get our snow tires put back on the van. Last year we bought 2 snow tires from Belle Tire and never had any problems in all our driving up and back. But this year, when I went in, the guy gave me a hard time about just putting on 2 tires. I told him I didn't know why it would be a problem, since they were the ones who sold them to be last year! In any case, he said they could only put them on the back...not the front. I told him I didn't know where they put them on last year, I just wanted them on. So, they put them on...the back. When I got home Dan told me they were definitely on the front last year. To which I replied, "Why would a tire store...a store that sells tires put snow tires in the wrong place?"

Anyway, when we turned off the main road to Grandpa Lu's we did so with snow tires in the back. The drive once you turn off is normally 12 minutes or so of windy dirt road driving. There were some slick spots at first, but nothing that would make you think...we better turn back! Well, about 10 minutes in...there was no turning back! The van was slipping and sliding all over the place. So I attempted to turn around and get back to paved roads, but we couldn't get back up the last hill we slid down!! We were stuck sideways, but not off in a ditch! Luckily our cell phones worked and Dan got a hold of Lu who was coming to rescue us with his pick up truck. On their way to reach us, they passed a friend of theirs who also had a big truck and who said he would come back to help. It was a good thing he did. Over the course of the next hour or so, we were just one of many cars who got stuck at that particular spot. In the end, it took us being tied to the truck and towed all the way out to dry roads! The kids were troopers, but at one point Reece looked at me with fear in his eyes and asked, "Mom, are we going to die?" Poor baby!

Needless to say, celebration #2 was canceled. There was no way we were going back down that road and Grandpa Lu and Grandma Dorena were mentally and physically exhausted from rescuing us anyway. So, we promptly drove to Reed City Tire where they moved my snow tires from the back to the front. I asked the guy there, why would a tire store tell me they couldn't put snow tires just on the front and he said, "Cuz their lazy." Nice. Thanks Belle Tire!

So, there is Thanksgiving 2008 in a nutshell! It was a reminder for us to be thankful at all times for our health and good fortune. Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

Before we left to come home, I took advantage of the snow and did a photo shoot with the boys for our Christmas card. So cute!


And we had the chance to meet with Ken Wirth about getting a quote on finishing our walk out basement. The quote isn't in yet, so we're not exactly sure if we can swing it this year, but it's out there and we shall see!