Thanksgiving Day

I know it's well past Thanksgiving by now, but hopefully everyone had a great Turkey Day! We completed a whirlwind family tour of Long Island (& environs) in 4 frenzied but enjoyable days. For the first leg, we left Friday morning and drove down to Nanuet, NY to stay the night and visit with Uncle Kenny, Jeannie & Ian. There we met the new star of the family (move over, Aiden!), Mause the Yorkshire Terrier. Mause (pronounced like the rodent) was recently adopted by Uncle Kenny - he is 5 years old but is no larger than a loaf of fruitcake. It took Aiden about 10 seconds to decide that Mause was the best thing he'd ever seen, and to chase him madly around the kitchen and living room. For his part, Mause was very tolerant and easily evaded the small zombie toddling around after him. I thought only chiuhuahuas were as small as this little guy, but apparently tiny "Yorkies" are extremely popular... I just heard a story on NPR about how Yorkshire Terriers are now so expensive that burglers are breaking into pet stores and even homes to steal them! Watch out Mauser!

We woke up on Thanksgiving morning and it was about 55 degrees (we haven't seen that in Vermont in 2 months) so we went for a walk around Kenny's neighborhood. Aiden was excited to see leaves again since ours at home have shriveled and been covered with snow.

Later that day we headed over to New Jersey (sounds like a long trip but it's only a half hour) to Aunt Mary and Uncle Mike's house for Thanksgiving Dinner. Aunt Mary had laid out a crazy spread of toys for Aiden to play with- everyone was impressed that she had saved a whole plastic grocery cart from the 1980s, filled with plastic representatives of every food group! Some of us "older kids" were more excited (i.e. nostalgic) about the toys than Aiden was, I think, but they definitely kept him occupied.

As usual, there was an incredible spread of food and everyone had a great time. Celebrations with the Kulis Family always involve a Lithuanian favorite, kielbasa. However, we're not talking about your typical smoked kielbasa made by Hillshire Farms. We're talking "fresh" kielbasa - it's garlicky, it's grey, and you burp up the flavor for a good week if you eat a healthy portion. I realize that doesn't sound very appetizing, but it really is delicious. I can't believe I keep neglecting to get a picture of the big pot of kielbasa, but it looks something like the pictures below, only much greyer when cooked. Next time...

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More pictures from the day are below, mostly courtesy of Chris, since my camera batteries ran out.

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Hannah, Uncle Kenny, and Jeannie relaxing

Enjoying the day

Playing with the "pet shop"

Douglas and Michelle

3 generations enjoying Wii bowling


Everyone loves Mause!

Allison, Mause and Jeannie

Our final stop of the day was the Field House in Brightwaters, NY to see Grandma Rising, Aunt Sandy, Uncle Brandt, Carrie, James, and William. It was about as low-key a Thanksgiving as I've ever seen at the Field House, which was exactly what Aiden needed at that point in a very busy day. William and Aiden ran around playing with Grandma's fun toys (like the mirror that laughs at you when you look in it, or the hammer that makes a shattering glass sound, both big hits) and we enjoyed some good conversation and a second turkey dinner.

Aiden trying to escape from a photo with Grandma