This Thanksgiving was a wonderful one for us. Uncle Ron and Aunt Marty came up from San Antonio along with Tanya, my cousin, and her husband Ken Sonnier. Ron’s turkey was as lip-smackingly tasty as I’d remembered from past holidays, and my cranberry salsa was well recieved, even by my recovering-yankee bride. That contingent was then followed by [Dad McMains->], [Lana->], and [Meara->], who had been visiting Lana’s folks earlier in the day. Lana treated us to one of her fantastic pecan pies, all credit for which she claims should go to her granny, whose recipe she uses, but I’m pretty sure that I’d get different results if I tried to make it. Finally, our next-door neighbors the Isaacs dropped by for some visiting, which was all the more valued since they’re in the process of moving up to Possom Kingdom Lake, where Jake will be running the fish hatchery there.

We decided that this year, instead of killing a tree for that authentic holiday smell, we’d plant a couple of little christmas trees out in the front yard and decorate them instead. Kathy had done most of the hole-digging — a signficant chore in our part of San Marcos, since you hit layers of limestone about 6 inches below the surface — earlier in the week, so it was a relatively simple matter to get them planted on Friday. They look great, and should grow pretty quickly to a more standard christmas tree size in a year or two. (They’re about three feet tall at the moment.)

During the day on Saturday, we popped down to San Antonio and helped [Mom McMains->] and her housemate Julia decorate for Christmas. They really enjoy Christmas decorating, so we scrambled all over the house hanging lights, putting up ornaments, deploying nativity livestock, etc. We had a great time with them and with [Gayle->], who also dropped by for a bit. Gayle is putting together a website for her photography business, so I should be able to point you to some of her work soon.

[Steve->], [Travis->] and I played our last weekly gig at the local coffee shop on Saturday night. We were pleased to have Travis back from Russia, where he’d been on a mission trip for the last three and a half weeks. I pulled out the hammered dulcimer for the first time in public for two tunes, one of which went pretty well. It honestly comes as a bit of a relief to be cutting back from weekly performances again. Though I enjoy the gigs a lot, every Saturday was starting to feel like just a bit too much.