22

Families are like fudge--mostly sweet with a few nuts.  -Unknown

Well now that we've covered the Wulff Pack, we will go onto "The Other Side," not to be confused with "The Dark Side." 

Tom, Spencer, Lexie, Nancy (and a Bitty Baby)

As far as relatives go on the Jones side, I have one uncle, aunt and 2 cousins (one of which is my God daughter).  They are an energetic and entertaining crew!!  But since I can remember, we have spent Thanksgiving with Gramma and Grampa at their house and all of my Mom's cousins have joined for this tradition, as well, so they are also a part of "The Other Side." Counting my great aunt and great uncle, their kids, kids-in-law and grand kids, there are a total of 22 of them--so if we have all of them, plus my first cousins, we'd have a house of 32 at Thanksgiving.  And of course, Gramma doesn't allow for any feasting to occur until we have counted off everyone in the room, joined hands and done a prayer of Thanksgiving for our meal, our family, and our safe travels.

Aunt Meridee, Morgan, Uncle Lea

Every single one of these relatives is great--the age ranges are from 82 (Gramma and Grampa) to 5, and everywhere in between.  Thanksgiving and Christmas have always been my favorite holidays--and not because of the gifts--not that there are gifts at Thanksgiving.  One of my favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan, does a shtick about family traditions and holidays:

Thanksgiving. It’s like we didn’t even try to come up with a tradition. The tradition is, we overeat.
“Hey, how about at Thanksgiving we just eat a lot?”
“We do that every day!”
“Oh. What if we eat a lot with people that annoy the hell out of us?”

Curt, Jody, Ethan, Peyton & Brenna

Nancy, Riah, Ida

Fortunately, that was never the case for me!  Well--the overeating part was true--but not with people who annoy me.  Eh--I take that back--sometimes the kids can get annoying--but in general, it has always been fun.  Not only does our family Thanksgiving time consist of amazing food (the usuals:  turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn casserole, etc., in addition to some Norwegian/family favorites:  lefse, Swedish meatballs and rice ring!), but other fun activities:

Jean & Charlie on the left--
they saved this lady's life last year!

-Uncles debating whether or not the lake is frozen enough to walk on--and then watching one fall through, clearly losing his argument
-Playing Canadian Rummy
-The kids/Dads going outside to play football
-Watching Vikings play
-The kids nagging about wanting to go to the basement to play pool
-Tom telling the kids that the basement is haunted
-NAPPING
-A post-dinner walk


One of the best parts of Thanksgiving:
Seeing Nancy!

Since moving to the South, I have only been back for one Thanksgiving (it gets pricey to fly back, especially doing it 2 months in a row for Christmas and Thanksgiving), but I have committed to myself that I will do it every other year.  This year is an off year, unfortunately, but that'll make next year all that much better.  I just hope somebody saves me some rice ring.

So mile 22 is for the Jones & Dobberstein family!