Thanksgiving update

 Life continues to be rich and full here in Enoughsville.  I've been grateful lately for the things I can take for granted -- for late November showing up, and my tickler spitting out the "how to shop/cook for the big dinner" list that guides me thought massive meal preparation, and for the family sending greetings and even (if they're close enough) sending themselves my way.  

And what a lovely family!

Sizzling kicked off the greetings for the day.

Kinderling, David, and my grandkids are just so good at
taking photos to keep track of all the changes as they grow.

Nelson shared the cheery news that things are going well at his work; his boss sometimes cooks for him, which sounds like a lovely community-building ritual.  He and I have been trading phone calls and texts about organizing our living spaces; he's the most like me in appreciating the power of checklists and labels on shelves, and so it's a bunch of fun to strategize with him on smoothing out wrinkles and also making a good life run even more smoothly.

As for the family in my neck of the woods, we celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday instead of Thursdays to accommodate many schedules.  Both Jason and Inkling worked Friday morning, but made it over in the afternoon (yay!).  We had a sizable crew over for dinner -- family, friends, students.  

And after dinner, Prewash went diligently to work on keeping grease and chunky food particles out of the dishwasher.  

She tells us that Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday of the year. 

Speaking of Jason, he's working on getting more tattoos.  He didn't show us the latest addition in person, but he did share this photo of his most recent ink.

My little boy has grown and flown; that's what this says.

Gosling sent some amazing photos of constructing Beef Wellington; I'd share those but apparently I'm just too squeamish about photos of cow meat.  So I'll substitute in stunt doubles. 

A bunch of new cow beanbags, to restock the Little Farm Library.
You can pretend this is Gosling saying,
"Colin and I are attempting a beef Wellington"

A cow card that joined the Cow Library this morning.
or
"Watson enjoying a beef marrow bone from the butcher
... if it's his last Thanksgiving ... he should get all the fun!
The other pups got them too." 

This leads me to share the hard news that Gosling's beloved dog Watson, who has survived so much, is facing new (or returning) challenges:

but the cancer he had, in most dogs, comes back in his lungs, and despite my hope and prayer it would never happen for him, it has. He also may have a touch of pneumonia, this is a little less clear.

I'm sad for Watson (and his humans), but I'm truly grateful that he has such a caring and loving owner watching over him; he's a bit of a Bionic Dog, who's been put back together over and over by Gosling, and if he's got to go through hard times again, he's in exactly the right place to do so.  

And that's the news from our family, which continues to be thankful for the ordinary things.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.