Another year, another delicious turkey

I do believe this is the fifth Thanksgiving I've recorded on this blog. It does make me rather impressed with this blog's longevity, even if I haven't been updating with quite the same regularity as before. I think I actually started back in 2010 with two posts a week! I think I had a lot more time back in 2010. Anyway, point being, most of you know the Thanksgiving drill by now. In fact, most of my readers are even a part of said drill. This Thanksgiving was like many of the others in all of the best and most comforting ways. It was also a bit bittersweet because it was the first Thanksgiving missing one very important person.

The turkey master surveying his domain.

We had all the usual favorites, plus some cauliflower I snuck in (recipe here if anyone is interested). Our normal habit of frequent post lunch walking was held in check by nigh constant rain. I don't think it stopped raining for more than a couple of hours the whole four days we were there. Without the ability to exercise, we had no choice but to hunker down, eat more, and work an obscene number of crossword puzzles. Some also chose to nap. I think it could be best described as a "hibernation." It was the perfect respite, especially because I've had a pretty busy November and a very busy December approaching.

Some favorite people, and me standing very awkwardly for some reason. 

We did make the occasional venture out. One day we went to the Kimbell in Fort Worth to see the Caillebotte exhibit. Truthfully I wasn't entirely sure who was Caillebotte was prior to the exhibit, but I did recognize his most well known painting as one that my mom has had on an umbrella for decades. The exhibit was a really good one. Nice to see more about an impressionist's work who I wasn't previously that familiar with. We also had a nice lunch at the Kimbell, which was a welcome break from Turkey leftovers at that point.

You couldn't take pictures in the exhibit, but they hung a giant print of his painting "Paris Street, Rainy Day" outside it with props so you could join in as a rained on Parisian. 

 Since we'll be spending Christmas with the other side of the family, we did our annual Thanksgiving gift exchange. I enjoy this particular tradition because it enables me to get half of my Christmas shopping done early. This year I got a particularly lovely gift. My mom created this beautiful portrait of Dinah. It's not hanging in our office, but before that I wanted to do a photo shoot with the painting's subject. I wanted her to pose like the portrait, as that is usually her natural stance. Of course getting a cat to strike a pose is rather difficult. Below is probably the closest I came.

This was the point in the photo shoot when she started to tire of my need for documentation. 

After a wet drive back on Sunday, we're back in Austin, where the weather has not sunned up too much. Looking forward to putting up Christmas lights on our house for the first time though, rain or shine!