Thanksgiving after 17 years!

Before/After Pictures from about 30 years ago.

There are only four leaves in the table...minis the other 8  Talk about a Downton Abbey table!!!!

Chuck carving the turkey

Gene and I walking after dinner

Frank Bennett"s truck ????? ( in Fried Green Tomatoes)

The Spanish Moss doesn't grow north of Montgomery in Alabama.  

" Thanksgiving after all these years"....( singing to Paul Simon's .." Still crazy after all these years".....)
    Michelle came home Wednesday night, after work so the three of us could leave at 6:00 am on Thanksgiving morning to drive down to Cecil to Gene and George's.  We were going to spend Thanksgiving  after many years.  We hadn't figured it up but when we did, it had been 17 years since we had spent Thanksgiving with them.  Gene had kept a Thanksgiving journal of all the fun years we had with them.  Not only did it tell us how long it had been, but it gave us lots of laughs.  Gene had copied pictures of each of us from the past.  About thirty years in the past.  She had made place cards for the table with the old pictures.  Of course we had to take pictures of the before and after.  ( I had forgotten my camera...I know!!  how in the world could I have done that? These pictures where taken by Michelle with her phone)  We all kept saying .." I can't believe it's been 17 years!!".  We talked about all the funny things that had happened over the years that we were together.  A few gave us " laughing our butts off, laughs"
  Gene and George are doing some more construction on " our house".  Since they inherited the dining room table that Gene's grandfather had bought used, that has 13 leaves to it, they had to turn our living room into their dining room.  That room still isn't big enough.  So, they are knocking down our living room wall ( behind our couch) and extending their dining room all the way over to their sitting room ( our dining room).  Are you keeping this all straight in your mind?  This way, they can turn their long dining room table going the other way and that will give them more room to walk around the table and they can use the fire place again.  Right now, it's to close to the table.  I can't wait to go back down in the Spring to see it all done.
   After a wonderful dinner, we all took a walk in the woods.  It's a tradition for us, but now it's a must for me.  I have to walk off all the sugar/carbs that I eat.  It was a wonderful Thanksgiving.  It made us miss all the fun times that we used to have.  We were missing Becca and her family though.  They spent their Thanksgiving over in Eufala  with Ro's family.  Maybe we can redo it all in the near future when Becca plans on being home for Thanksgiving.   We headed home on Friday morning but not without stopping to see Lady Melanie in Birmingham first.  It was the best Thanksgiving we have had in many, many years.  Well, not counting the first one in the TT when we moved up here.  And we didn't even have turkey that year...ha. ( no oven to cook one)  Thank goodness for traditions!  We may not spend our Holidays the same way any more but we sure do have a lot of memories to look back on.  We are so lucky to have so many that make us laugh.  Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving like we did.