Thanksgiving and beyond

Dad's napping after another long day capped off with turkey leftovers. Thanksgiving lived up to its name around here. Bill soaked up every moment with his family him. We all did.

I started the day with another run on the rails-to-trails path down the road from Dad's house, in the small town of Kipton. Tried to just clear my mind before returning home to a cooking frenzy. Heather, Linda and I then rolled up our sleeves and spent hours in the kitchen preparing the turkey, stuffing, cheesy potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, salad and homemade cranberry sauce. Linda bought the desserts from her school's culinary program -- those are some talented young chefs!

As Heather said, Dad's great to cook for because he'll say he loves just about anything you put in front of him. But this truly was a scrumptious meal. We started off by tipping back some special whiskey that Dad and Linda brought back from Scotland. Smooooooth stuff. One of the many things I love about my Dad is his ability to truly enjoy things and talk about them as he's doing it. He really savored that shot and explained exactly why -- even through his somewhat limited speech.

After our big meal, we wobbled around for a few hours, watched football, played with the kids, then dug into dessert and more wine. And more wine. And laughing, sitting at the table with candles. Talking about how happy we were to be in this moment and all together.

Truly a day to give thanks.

Today brought some cold weather, but it didn't deter us from heading to Castalia for a visit to a place called Back to the Wild. It's a wildlife rehabilitation and nature education center. Dad and Linda had been there once before. Through bitter wind we walked around to see eagles, hawks, the most beautiful owls, pheasants, bobcats, kestrels, and a bunch of snakes and turtles. Dad was totally engaged -- he loves animals -- and asked our guide a bunch of questions.

Near one of the eagle areas, Dad started looking down at the brick pavers with names of donors engraved. "Look, Lisa, here it is." Turns out he donated to this place in his mom and my mom's names. He found his brick. So we took a picture and he said something like, "This is a really worthy place for animals." And it was. Dad's generosity never ceases to amaze me.

Well, must go. Linda's son (my step-bro!) just arrived, and we're going to watch some old slides tonight. Life continues to be good.