Thanksgiving 2008 at the Parkinsons' Home

We had a small, intimate gathering today for Thanksgiving. We forewent the traditional turkey and had a nice honey-baked ham. We even went without the pumpkin pie and had peach cobbler instead. Alicia and Jesse flew up from Saugus, CA but then car-pooled with Shelby, Jesse's brother, up to Billings, Montana to visit Jesse's relatives and celebrate Thanksgiving there. Gayle and I had my mom and dad, Jared, and our friend Lucy (from Virginia) over for the feast. We did have yams with apples, my specialty (Asian cabbage salad), asparagus, the ham, whole wheat rolls, raw carrots, and the fruit and jello salad (bel0w).
Here's a shot of the tasty jello salad and grapes. I put this photo in for the color.

Here we are. Granpa, grandma, Jared, Gayle, and Lucy. I'm doing camera duty.
Jared, letting the food digest as we socialize post-feast.
Dad and mom relaxing.
Lucy performed several pieces for our enjoyment. At the end, just before she had to go, I grabbed my guitar and we did Silent Night and then a few church hymns. In this shot I'm trying to figure out where to capo the guitar so I can play Silent Night with her and still use the key I'm used to playing it in.


This is actually only the second take we did on Silent Night (one verse). The first time didn't record as well on our digital camera. So in total we only played two verses, no rehearsal at all. Maybe we should practice some time and then see how we do. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we hope you did too!