Thanksgiving at home

Keith and Mom at the holiday table

Mom checking out the lights sparkle in the crystals above

Keith's arrangement of leaves and end of season flowers and herbs 

My quick sketch of Keith's arrangement 

 Keith and I went home for two nights to Manassas to have our Thanksgiving day celebration with my mother and brother. We took a pumpkin pie and 20 pound roasted turkey he made and Mom made all the other side dishes and dressings for our biggest meal. The extra large turkey was to ensure plenty of left overs for meals to last the next few days. Brother David seemed to think we short changed him in past years on left over turkey... so we bumped it up a few pounds this time. We arrived and threw the turkey giblets in a pot and mom got to work making her gravy and sauce to moisten the bread dressing. I sliced the turkey for dinner and picked the bones clean to set aside the meat for chilling. We were all feeling good and hungry by 2 PM when we sat down and enjoyed the bounty. It was all delicious and no one seemed to have pushed beyond their comfort limits to achieve a well made meal. With dinner cleared away and all the left overs put up and the china and silver clean and dried Keith and I set out to the National Battlefield for a walk before the sun set and while the weather was still a mild 60ºF.

Ball family graves 

field and wall of the Ball cemetery

tombstone with weeping willow and monuments relief 1832

We took cameras along and I enjoyed taking some snap shots of the walk that lasted about an hour. It felt good to be outside in the fields and woods moving and watching birds as the sun slowly sank into the horizon. The sky was crystal clear and on the trail we saw an amazing assortment of birds. Blue bird was the first, then tufted titmouse were were with the black capped chickadees. Further in the woods we saw two different kinds of woodpeckers and heard but didn't see crows. There were others we could hear but never got a good enough look at to tell who they were. So that was entertaining to enjoy as we walked to a new section of the battlefield we hadn't explored. We discovered a Ball family cemetery enclosed in a walled area of a field. This must be the Ball family who give the name to Balls Ford a place where one could cross the Bull Run creek with horse drawn wagons of the years gone by. There is also a Ballsford road near by. I have never seen this part of the battlefield that I recall and it was fun to see there is still more park to explore and discover for future visits. As it was we had to turn around at the cemetery to get back to the car before dark.

Keith looking at hollow red cedar tree on the trail

Henry house 

Stonewall Jackson sculpture

sun sinks into the trees

blue ridges in the distance

 The next day was about taking it easy and figuring if we wanted to do any "black Friday" shopping. We started at Good Will. Keith dropped off some of his old clothes and mom went to the book shelves and selected a few books to read while I looked for quilting fabric to fit my current projects. No luck for me there but we went by Joann's Fabric store later and I got a nice deal on white pin point dots on a red cloth for the back side of my Seminole quilt. I may have enough use as red binding edges on the Rose-star quilt but first the Seminole has to be put together. Once we had a nice lunch at Pannera of Big Kid's creamy tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich with bacon we hit Target and found a few things then it was time to do our next big plan. We headed over to the movie theaters and got in line to buy a ticket to see Lincoln the new Spielberg movie with Daniel Day Lewis and Sally Field and a huge cast of famous actors. We found the show we wanted to see was long sold out and the next one sold out while we were in line. So we chose a later showing and got tickets and went home to rest and come back. It went just perfectly we got a break and then went early and got the best seats for the 7:10 show.

The film was great entertainment in so many ways. We all wished there were more like it in theaters all year round. Lincoln is a moving story about something that is very hard to make a good entertainment about: government. It was based on a history book that won the Pulitzer Prize about Lincoln's cabinet. I would recommend the Lincoln movie to you all if you care about history, even a little, you will certainly learn something more about how US government in Washington DC works or does not as seems to be the case in recent years.