An early Thanksgiving here at the Cave…NO turkey involved.

  This last weekend was another in the long line of Cave-A-Paloozas..and it was a hum dinger!  We all decided early on that there would be no turkey.  Most of our family will be somewhere on Thanksgiving Day that DOES involved Mr. Gobbler..Our family opted for lots of appetizers all day long…Beginning with a salad…

…Hey!  At our house, a Bloody Mary is considered a salad!! They were complete with celery, marinated mushrooms, dill pickles and green olives..Very tasty, even though I realized too late that I had bought the olives with the pits still in!! Well, it made it much more interesting to navigate through it!

Only our daughter, Terrie, could manage to get the celery caught on her sunglasses…

Uncle Kelly and Aunt Cindy told everyone they were bringing a surprise…That could be anything animal, mineral, edible,  motorized, playable, wild, tame or indifferent.. The only  hint they gave was to bring very warm clothing…

WOOT!WOOT!. TODAY WE ARE ALL OFFICIALLY FROM THE SOUTH…Y’ALL GOTTA HAVE ONE OF THESE IN THEM THAR SOUTHERN STATES!! Actually, lots of people have them all over…Our daughter-in-law’s father lives in Oklahoma and he gave it to Kel and Cin…Kelly can use it to haul the deer out of the woods that he hunts in… But, today, we were all going for RIDES!

Of course, it had to be the coldest day of the year!! Uncle Kelly let Peyton and Taylor drive it (with  him on the back instructing)…The little kids loved it too, but MAN it was soooo cold!!

My brother, Michael and his wife Helen came from Marseilles, IL to spend the day with us…Kelly and Michael hunt deer and wild turkey together, and have been since Kelly was old enough to learn to shoot.  My brother was very adamant about him learning gun safety at a young age…  They hunt with shotgun and bow and arrow, when hunting season arrives.  Kelly got himself a nice buck last week. I won’t post the photo.  I do understand that some people have a problem with hunting and I respect that…But I have to say that Kelly and Michael EAT what they hunt.

My brother, Michael and his wife, Helen..I DARE you to say that our family doesn’t have a sense of humor…They all LOVE to photo bomb!!

Me and my baby “bro”…After we saw this pic we both thought we looked like “Don and Cora”,( our mom and dad)…And yes, I did have one of my many ensembles on by early evening…Hey, my family had come to expect this from me!!

Our son, Kelly, and nephew Aiden…Our middle daughter, Terrie, and nephew Maddox…Our youngest daughter, Chris and hubby John.

Later in the evening, Kelly cooked us up some awesome Hooter’s recipe Buffalo Chicken Wings….and also some fresh Crappie…all battered then deep fried in our turkey fryer outside..

I’m pretty sure the neighbors thought we had all lost our minds, and they probably weren’t too far from the truth…This was one of the COLDEST Cave-A-Paloozas yet!

The kids surprised us with a plaque to hang outside when we take the Hiker on trips..Terrie made it, and it is on a slice of  wood with hangers that is hung on a small flag hanger…One side has our “story”, and the other side has that very perfect saying for any RV’er… (I am waiting patiently impatiently for the results of my 13 biopsies so we will know WHEN MacGyver and I get to “hit the road”).

Yep, “the best things in life are the people we love, the places we’ve been and the memories we’ve made along the way”…NO TRUER WORDS!!!!  Thanks for stopping by …I know, I know..this has to be one of my longest blogs to date…I AM stopping now..It’s cocktail hour and I have a Rum and Coke with my name written aaaaaaaalllllllllll over it!