Thanksgiving Is Family

Another fabulous Thanksgiving for the Landry clan...this year we had folks joining us from near and far and it was a grand day.  We always make sure to take a family photo...Thanksgiving is family after all...quite the gang, wouldn't you say?

I had very intention of taking pictures all day long, but there was so much to do (I take the lead helping my dad keep everything organized and prepared on time) that my camera sat on the bed much of the day.  Every now and then though, I'd remember to snap a few photos to remember this year's festivities...

...my husband Johny and three of my dad's sisters...

 ...my cousin's son Mason helping my dad (Pépère)...

 ...Mason up close...cute little fellow, isn't he?

My sister-in-law Wendy imitating the magnet on the fridge...I wonder why she decided the figure had it's mouth open...I'll have to ask her...

...I call this the testoserone corner...

 ...we had 35 people, every spot on the lanai filled and a few of us had to sit in the kitchen.

We had a surprise 80th birthday celebration for my Aunt Gaby, that's my dad showing her this really awesome candle that was spinning around and played happy birthday...

 ...close up of the flowers on the cake...they were gorgeous!

This is how I felt once everyone left for the day...head having to be held up!

Friday morning a few of us gathered again before heading our separate ways...my daughters Erin & Jessi (love them so, can't wait to see that for Christmas)...

...and my grandson Liam enjoying his hot cocoa...can you believe this is one of the few photos I got of him the whole time?...I"ll make up for it at Christmas!

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving as much as I did.

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

Giving Thanks

This big fellow greeted me as I passed by on my walk this morning, the brightest spot along the river at 6:30!  I bet he's happy he won't be gracing someone's table:)

Seeing him got me to thinking about all the things I am grateful for and how fortunate I am to live such a blessed life.  Life is good indeed!

I won't post tomorrow; we have lots of family gathering and I don't want to miss a minute (so excited I'll be seeing Liam again!!!) and I know you too will be enjoying the day with your family and probably won't be reading lots of blogs. 

Heartfelt thanks to all of you, my faithful family/friends/readers/subscribers/followers, for helping make my blog a success!  Many blessings to you and your family...safe travels if you'll be on the road.

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow (well...Friday),
Lise

Thanksgiving Preparations

Like most of you, I've been prepping my contributions to our family's Thanksgiving feast and I thought I'd share a few of my specialties (mind you these are in the prep stage and won't make for nice presentation...nothing gets completed until Thanksgiving day)...

I'll start with this surprisingly beautiful sunrise this morning... I say surprising because it was drizzling and I thought the sun would never make it through the bank of clouds...it was quite lovely...

Every year, my immediate family gathers to celebrate Thanksgiving together.  We often have distant relatives who join us, and friends as well...there are times my dad's house is overflowing with all of us.  This is one of those years, with several out-of-state-ers joining us.  Everyone brings their own specialties, and these are mine...

...my mom's cranberry relish, made with fresh finely chopped cranberries, a can of drained mandarin oranges, orange zest, juice from one orange and sugar to taste.  Let everything marinade together for at least two days...zingy cranberryness!

This year I will also be making the dressing, which is a basic recipe including sauteed onions, celery and fresh mushrooms, bread cubes (yes I cheat and buy them),  vegetable stock, sage, parsley, salt and pepper.  I put it in a baking disk and it will be baked at 350F for about 30 minutes until the top is a little browned and crusty...so good. 

This is my specialty (doesn't look like much right now, but oh so good)...this is a meat stuffing made of ground chuck, pork and turkey, sauteed onion and celery, ground cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, salt and pepper, bread crumbs and vegetable stock.  After everything is cooked together, some of it gets stuffed into a cleaned out pumpkin and some makes a tourtière (French meat pie)...my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving feast!  I will stuff the pumpkin and the pie crust once I arrive at my dad's, I hope I remember to take pictures for you!

Do you have a family specialty you make?  What is your favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal?

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,

Lise

River Dance

The river is a rockin' an' a rollin' today...the way it splashes up against the coquina rocks makes it look like it's dancing...

..mesmerizing performance!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

Devil's Millhopper and Kaffeeklatsch

It is a pure pleasure to get to visit with friends we haven't seen for a while...so far we've enjoyed dinner out with our friend Brucie, lunch with our friend Sharon and a day with our friends Ursula & Dick...Ursula prepared a lovely lunch in their new home and gave us a tour of their new digs...

...she shared some interesting archaeological yard finds she dug up in their new backyard as she prepared the land for her new garden...aren't these tiles beautiful?  She believes they were hand made by the previous owner... 

...and were stones for pets who had passed...incredible works of art to be discovered hidden under the earth!

She has a marvelous garden, always has, but this is the first time I have ever seen loofah in plant form!

We decided to go walking through Devil's Millhopper, a sinkhole thousands of years old...this is us beginning the trek with our dogs Pogo and Gretchen... 

...a view of the sinkhole from above...

...Dick, Pogo and Gretchen staying at the top of the 280+ stairs leading down to the bottom of the hole...too much for the dogs to handle (Dick volunteered to stay at the top of the stairs with them to save their hips from the numerous stairs...maybe his too, LOL!)...

...this is on the way down...

...the falls...

...at the bottom...

...a sign along the way...ancient and spiritual feeling place...

Johny spotted this Chicken of the Woods mushroom growing in the trees...these are supposed to be good eating!

We returned to Ursula and Dick's house for a little kaffeeklatsch (a friendly German tradition of gathering for coffee and conversation)...not only looks beautiful but tasted delicious!

It's good to spend time with good friends, laughing, exploring, enjoying...

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

Free Flowing

We sat on the dock with our coffee this morning, watching the runners/bicyclists pass by along the road as a myriad of organic things flowed freely along in the river.  The most interesting thing to catch my attention was this feather...this was the first picture I took...

...I was enjoying how gently it bobbed with the waves but didn't really see these neat reflections until I looked at the photo through the camera's viewer...the picture above looks like a strange fish...the one below is a clear photo of the feather with the flash creating the abstraction in the corner.

The reflections intrigued me, so I started snapping away (none of these photos have been edited other than to crop them)...these three are of the sunlight reflecting on the water (squeezing through the inbetweens of the half wall made of 4" wide deck boards)...

The next three are from a deck post about 8 feet away from the deck...you can see the actual post in the top of this first one...

 ...these two are only the reflection...

...and I think those little squiggly lines may be the flash or sun reflecting on tiny fish swimming around...

It was a very relaxing way to start a day that turned out being very busy!  So nice to have these free flowing images in my mind as I unwind...I hope you find them relaxing too.

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

Rise 'n Shine!

We are heading to Gainesville to visit our friends Dick & Ursula for the day...they moved there recently and we haven't seen what they've done with it yet...what this means is we are starting early and will be back late so I'm posting now.


I thought you might enjoy a couple more rise 'n shine (reminds me of a peppy song we used to sing in the car on the way to my grandmother's every Sunday) pictures...it's amazing to me how the sunrise colors morph over time...

 ...always magical, always breathtaking, each day unique...

...I hope you have a special and joyous day!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

PS...septic tanks emptied (more about that in a few days...it was fascinating) but plumbers are coming Monday...seems there might be some roots blocking the pipes...never a dull moment!