Thanksgiving Blessings

This year we had an extra special Thanksgiving. Only I don't have pictures of the actual day because I left my camera in a hotel room in Charlottesville. They were kind enough to send it back to me but I did not get it until Friday. Our day was made special because it was spent with family - we ate at my sister-in-law's house. She graciously hosts us every year. I had picked up Hollywood on Tuesday, along with 2 of her BRs/classmates. Sam is from California and Chang is from Taiwan - neither of them were able to take a trip home so we gladly had them stay with us. Hollywood made a couple of dishes for Thanksgiving - a pineapple/mandarin casserole and a greenbean casserole. Hers are almost as good as mine. Almost.

On Friday the girls braved the shops and hit Black Friday at 5 a.m. with my sister-in-law. They were done by 9 am and had to come home for a nap. They did a lot of napping over the holiday because they don't get to do that much at military school! And speaking of napping, here's what they did on the way back to school: Yes, that's right - they napped! All four (we picked up another classmate for the ride back) of them for at least 2 hours of the 4 hour trip. The drive back was cold, rainy and foggy. They said that the dreary skies were appropriate given that they were returning to school. All in all it was a very joyful few days, just way too short. We have started counting the days down again until December 17th - their last day before the Christmas break. They will have some 3 weeks off at that time. This really gives them something to look forward to and it is very important right now that they know they need to just focus hard for 3 more weeks. Once they get back from the Christmas break, it will be mid-January. They will be breaking out of the Ratline on January 31st and they are psyched about that!

Here's a photo of the group as we dropped them back at school. They all had to be in uniform - in their grey blouse. From l-r - Hollywood, Chang, Sam and Rick.

I want to see if I can post this video of Sam and Chang at the iceskating rink. We have a rink at an outdoor mall. Chang is the one in the pink coat who knows how to skate. Sam is the one just learning!