Thanksgiving

Thursday 27th November 2014

This is the most precious of holidays to Americans.
The chance for families to get together and give thanks for everything that they have - most especially their family.

We were invited to attend the Thanksgiving Day celebrations with Sara's family - on her mother's side and we think we can remember just about everyone who was there.
It was a chance for Sara to see all of her family - on that side - she had not seen them since she and Mitch had returned to Australia back in January this year.

Everyone had hoped that in addition to everyone else, that Mitch would have been there as well - he was well accepted into the family when he was here in 2012 for Thanksgiving.
Alas it was not to be, but hopefully it will not be too long before he can get his visa for the US and start his life with Sara in this country.

The celebration's for the day were to held at the house of the person that we only knew as Uncle Dean - in fact he is Sara's uncle.
He and patrner Jim live pretty much central to most of the family they have a house large enough to accommodate everyone.
 

Jim and Dean - two nicer people would be hard to find

I don't think that we could have been made to feel any more part of the family than we were on this day and in a very genuine way. It seems that there is some type of similarity in looks between Mitch and I - the comment came through very often - all asked after him and were disappointed that he was not present.

We have heard about the notoriously plentiful amounts of food that are served at gatherings such as this and I can report that this is all true based on this experience.

All types of different dishes kept on appearing, in addition to the traditional turkey which was superbly cooked courtesy of either Jim or Dean (or perhaps both).

After the saying of grace it was all plates in for the food - but in a very orderly manner. All of the dishes that we sampled were very delicious and without a bit of willpower we could have eaten quite a deal more - but that would have left nothing for any of the lovely desserts that were ready after the main part of the meal.

The highlight of Thanksgiving in Dallas is the traditional Cowboys game - we had seen the preparations taking place outside the stadium the day before, but now it was time for the game - this time they were facing the Philadelphia Eagles, with whom they shared 1st place in their division.
Sadly for all of those present the Eagles managed to take the game by a significant margin, but the Cowboys are still a big chance for the playoffs.

Almost as soon as this game was over, there was another game on TV - this time being a local college game between traditional rivals TCU and Texas.

I did spend a fair amount of time talking to Dean during the day and thanking both he and Jim for making us feel so welcome; as well I did chat for quite a while with Beau (married to one of Sara's cousins - Ami) - he has a fascination for rugby, Australian Rules and in a small way, cricket - not really a gridiron fan - but he was a fan of Jack Daniels, but had a great time with him and a really nice guy.

In fact you would be hardpressed to find fault with anyone during the day.

A comment was made that there was some resemblance between me and uncle Phil - must have been the beard and hair (both greying), the glasses and of course, the ruggedly handsome faces - I can see why Phil was chuffed about that.

The hour was getting along when we finally left - apparently it was one of the latest finishes for a Thanksgiving Day for the family in quite a while - we certainly enjoyed the day.


Thank you to all for such a great day and Mitch will be here with Sara for the next one!