Botanica Illuminations 2014

We've bee going to this pretty regularly for the past five years (I counted), and while we've seen crowds, and gone when it's cold, we've never seen it as packed as it was this year. A warmish night, the opening weekend, and you've got a packed Botanica. So, we didn't do some of the things we have in the past, but we still went and had a good time.

We took lots of photos, anyway. That's what really counts.

Waiting in line:

 Me: "Alison, why do you photo bomb?" Alison: "It's fun! And I don't like regular pictures of me."

See?

More photobombing...

And all the pretty lights:

The coolest thing was this:



I'm not sure if you can tell -- we could barely see it; it would have been better had we been looking down on it -- but they managed to program a huge grid of lights to work like a TV. It was pretty impressive.

I'm always glad when we go.

Thanksgiving!

We had an enormous crowd at Chez Fox this year; much more than we have ever before. We had to fit them all in... borrowing tables from the church and doing some interesting logistics figuring. 

We ended up with a teenager table

a kid table

and an adult table. (There really were more adults there. Promise.)

A rousing game of Apples to Apples was played. (It got REALLY loud.)

And then we ate pie. (This is my book group -- Sarah on the left, and Karen in the orange. Plus Sarah's parents who were really neat.)

And talked some more. (Megan went in to work. Which was sad. But good, because she can always use the money.)

It was a fantastic afternoon.

It's all About the Food!

I had helpers this year!

Our friend, Daryle, made two ducks and a goose this year. They were a big hit. More so than the turkey!

Lots o' pies.

Yum!

Cousins!

We had cousins come for Thanksgiving! You have to understand: we so rarely get family to come for holidays, and COUSINS are a special treat. So, we were all very excited that Baden and Mary decided to drive down and spend a couple of days with us.

We played lots.

And inflicted our traditions on them.

And played games with them.

And took them to Friends.

And they took Kristen to the zoo.

And eventually, we wore them out and they had to go home.

It was SO much fun having family around. We must do it again!

A String of Selfies

Megan came home for the weekend, and somehow, they ended up with my phone. When they finished, there was a long line of selfies on it. Because that's what smartphones are REALLY for.

And one non-selfie:

 I love these girls!