Thanksgiving

Nathan and Neita graciously allowed me to join their family for Thanksgiving in Nampa Idaho. Emily and Alec decided to go as well (Just want to point out that I had decided to go before Emily made any final decisions.. regardless of what Emily says).

It was so nice to be with family and stay inside where it was warm and comfortable. My blood has thinned somewhat being in Vegas.

The Thanksgiving meal was wonderful and we toasted the good food (Annaliese was a little worried when Emily put bottles of sparkling Apple Cider into our cart that morning at Albertsons). I wanted to experience Black Friday with Neita cuz I had heard amazing stories about her skills and prowess. This was the first year in Nampa that Walmart opened at 12am so, seeing's how we had plans to stay up 'till midnight every other night, we figured that was the time to go.

Unfortunately all of Nampa had the same thought. I have never been in a store so packed and consequently all the sale items were gone. We heard later that most people had arrived at 11pm. I went to get in line because I thought I might get up to the front by the time Neita found everything she needed. She and Emily traipsed up and down the aisles looking in other peoples stashes trying to find what she needed. Neita is amazing. She found all but 1 movie. By this time, I realized I was in the WRONG line. Emily and Neita found a much shorter line and then we went home. The funny thing is, Neita went back Friday morning to find that Walmart had restocked. She got everything else without any crowds.

Moral of the story: The only reason to go early is if you need electronics. The rest of the time, sleep in 'till 9am.

Bailey, Wyatt, Annaliese, Alec, and I saw the new Harry Potter movie Sat because nobody else wanted to go with us.

Nathan took us out to shoot pheasants. Did you know Nathan can bark?

The rest of the weekend we watched more football than I have in the last 3 years put together (with much wailing and gnashing of teeth over that Boise game).

And I must say, football is much cooler in high def projected on a wall served with lots of popcorn.

Especially with popcorn. I like popcorn.

As for more photo documentation of the weekend, my phone has a camera. Annaliese thought that was kinda awesome.

Hold onto your horses ladies and gents, I now present to you a Helm Thanksgiving in this single media presentation! These pictures are from the first day because I am very good at getting my young relations in trouble, ie losing camera privileges.

No pictures of me, but I'm not complaining :-) (I had taken a few more pictures with my camera but they are too dark to post here)

And we will end on this video of Annaliese giving herself a headache.

I miss my family.