Not that I’m obsessive-compulsive or anything, but if a big event isn’t documented here, then it just didn’t happen. Just think: What if some advanced alien race finds this website sometime in the far, distant future, long after we’ve all succumbed to global warming global cooling old age? What evidence will there be that we even celebrated Thanksgiving? None. Then the aliens will assume that we were a bunch of good-for-nothing, thankless layabouts with nothing better to do than documenting children as they grow up.

That simply won’t do, so here we go.

First we went to my grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving Dinner proper, and really had a good time. Everyone was in good spirits, and I took lots of pictures. We gorged ourselves on turkey, stuffing, gravy, green beans, salad, rolls, cranberry sauce, olives (green and black), sweet pickles, and carrots. Then we had dessert, consisting of pecan pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and coffee.

Afterwards, we trucked across the street to Mom’s house for more formal photographs, and I had my first commissioned portrait session, using the new camera and mom’s tripod, with no flashes or strobes. The images turned out a bit soft, as many of them were on the order of one-second exposures, and few people can stay perfectly still for a full second while a camera records them. But I think they turned out pretty good considering the circumstances, and I learned a lot of new things to do differently next time.

A couple of days later we went to the Bowley homestead and had Thanksgiving with the Carr descendants. I didn’t get as many photos there, as it was a much less formal event where we all just ate and relaxed and hung out.

Photos are in the photo album, which is a good place for them to be, I think.