Thanksgiving in Bossier!

By the Red River

What a great time we had with Derek, Amanda, Deborah and Gideon!  I am practicing writing on a blog and adding pictures which Amanda helped me set up.  We'll see how it goes.  My technology skills have definitely got to improve.

We arrived in Bossier on Tuesday.  The trip seemed so short.  Dad and I had a great time in the 2 hour lay over.  We had lunch, visited, then it was time to take our short flight to Bossier.  Amanda and the children met us there.

Gideon, the Pirate!

We spent the evening with them and visited until the wee hours of the morning.  It was fun playing with Gideon and Deborah.  Amanda made out her shopping list before we went to bed so we could start early the next morning.  We had a great time the next morning shopping for Thanksgiving.  Dad was home playing with the little guys.  Derek got off work at noon.  The children and Dad went down for long naps.  Derek, Amanda and I went to the mall.  ( Much to Derek's distress I might add!)  We did enjoy visiting and shopping for a little while.  When we got home we all got ready and went down to the Boardwalk to walk around and eat dinner.  Christmas Carols were playing and the lights were on.  We rode the trolley and went home. Again, we stayed up late visiting and talking.  So fun!

Thanksgiving Day was spent cooking and washing dishes and getting ready.  Our dinner was delicious even though we had a few mishaps along the way.  (I used salt instead of sugar in the pumpkin pie.)  Thanks to Derek's advice, Amanda put her pie on Broil to help it cook faster!  She opened the oven and a fire had started. Fortunately we all were able to laugh and it made the day all the more memorable.  That night, Amanda worked with me on my blog and Derek and Dad did Genealogy and they think they found some names everyone had been looking for.

The day after Thanksgiving, Amanda and I hit Home Depot for poinsettias.  When we got home we all got ready and set out for Nickotash.  (I'm not sure about the spelling.)  It is such a quaint little town with beautiful gardens by a river.  We stopped and had lunch and walked around.  We then drove to the Melrose plantation where we went on a tour.  So interesting!  By that time, we were able to go back to Nickotash and see all the lights.  Even stopping and getting Burritos at Taco Bell was fun.  After the drive home we had fun p
laying cards and visiting.  You can imagine we were all sleep deprived by then.  ( I was probably the most fortunate.  Everytime we got in the car I fell asleep.

Dad and Deborah in the Garden

Yesterday we arrived home at 11:00.  We got our car and came home.  Hurredly I tried to get a few more Christmas decorations up and some friends from college came over to have dinner and visit.
They left at 11:00 p.m.  It was so fun to visit.  My friend Kris, teaches history and religion at two universities.  She also writes and just had a book accepted for publishing at Deseret Book.  She has interesting viewpoints on most subjects and is very informed.  ( She said she hates "viewings" at funerals and her husband has promised he would put her "facedown" in her casket!)  We laughed a lot.

We are so looking forward to Roni's visit this next week.  We love you all so much.  We hated to leave Deborah and Gideon.  They are such wonderful little people.  We are so proud of all of you and the way you are raising your children.  Today we will sing Happy Birthday to John.  His birthday was Friday!  Have a great month getting ready for Christmas!   Mom