Thanksgiving in Huntsville

We spent Thanksgiving weekend at my great-aunt's house in Huntsville, Alabama. Most people probably think it's boring to spend time with their great-aunt, but mine is amazing, and I love every minute I can be around her. She is my mom's aunt (my grandmother's sister) and we call her Aunt Sis.

I was 14 the last time I had been at her house - she lives on a 50-acre farm with beef cattle, a lake, three German shepherds, a garden full of vegetables, and about ten tractors made between 1940 and 1990. It was my favorite vacation spot of all time when I was younger (I think it still might be), so I could barely contain my excitement, knowing we would be going there for Thanksgiving.

THURSDAY:
Mom, Dad, my brother Nathan, Dan, and I drove down on Thanksgiving morning. Everything about Aunt Sis's place was the same as it had ever been. Here is a mini-tour of her farmhouse.

Above is a view of the front porch from the inside of the house - note the freezer - it is full of frozen vegetables from the garden and other delicious things that Aunt Sis has cooked.

This room (above) is not the kitchen - it is like a front-porch room where you do laundry, wash vegetables off when you bring them in from the garden, read magazines, and toast yourself by the wood stove (see Aunt Sis and me below). The stove keeps the whole house warm.

When we arrived, our first job was to enlarge the kitchen table:

Here is the beginning of our Thanksgiving feast (just the salads):

After lunch, the guys (Dan, Dad, Nathan, and cousin Michael) went to practice shooting with multiple types of pistols. Mom, Sis, and I took a leisurely walk around the lake.

A while later, we returned to the kitchen for a supper of taco soup and other treats: pie, ice cream, tassies, and a huge tub of homemade cracker jacks.

The evening ended with a game of Balderdash. I can't remember who won [winner, feel free to comment if you are reading this blog post], but the funniest round of the night was one about a crazy law. It went something like this: "In Japan, during childbirth, it used to be required for the father of the baby to________." and of course everyone is supposed to fill in the blank with their own answer. The correct answer was "lie in bed and imitate being in labor." (Sorry to ruin it for fellow Balderdash players who haven't come across this one yet.)

Nathan's answer was: "The father of the baby is required to drape himself with not less than three pounds of meat, symbolizing 'breadth' and 'depth.'" Guess who racked up the points on that round.

FRIDAY:

Played with the dogs - here is Mack, the puppy.

Took a walk to check on the cows and make sure the fences were in good shape.

Nathan and Dan wanted to learn how to re-load bullets (make new ones from gunpowder and old brass), so the guys all went to collect their shells from shooting the day before.

By evening, we were all back inside the house, discussing the laws of physics. (Really.)

Aunt Sis is a mathematician/physicist and used to work for NASA in the rocket department. When she retired from that, she taught higher math and physics in high school. It makes you feel smart just to look at her bookshelf:

Aunt Sis always made me want to be good at math... it's because of her that I loved trig and calculus... (though I am sad to say I don't remember much of it). You never know what you'll find sitting on her shelves here and there.

I don't know what Dan and Nathan are discussing in the picture below, but somehow I don't think it has anything to do with a science lesson.

SATURDAY:
Spent more time outside, playing with the dogs. Here is Sarah, another of the German shepherds, and the back of the house.

Mom, Sis, and I looked at old family photos like the one below. This is Aunt Sis and her twin brother (Uncle Bud) when they were babies.

It was very hard to leave that afternoon - we could have stayed for days. To Sis and Michael - THANK YOU FOR SUCH A WONDERFUL TIME! Can't wait to come back.

(See facebook for more photos.)