Thanksgiving, November 24th

  Larry & I went out for a ride this morning, taking the short track again.  I think we made about 3 or 4 miles, but with the wind a fairly good workout.  The good news is the repaired tire tube is still holding air. 
  We celebrated our 2nd Thanksgiving this year with our friends in AJ.  We went in at 10AM to prepare the hall [table cloths & settings], make coffee, get the turkey in the oven to heat up, make the stuffing & gravy, get the steam trays set up and then clean up all the prep dishes.  The dinner was at 1PM, so for those who attended [approx. 60 diners], the timing worked, while some others had other functions or may have preferred an evening meal. Given the number of people in the park right now, that was a pretty good level of participation.  The part of the dinner our kitchen crew prepared [5 turkey's, 24 boxes of stuffing/dressing & 4 gallons of gravy] turned out pretty well and seemed to be well received.  It was tasty and came out hot with the turkey nice and moist.  Even so, I prefer the way Marg seasons & makes all 3.
  Serving the provided 3 components of the dinner went very smoothly and Marg said it was quicker than it takes to get everyone fed at our house.  Each table is required to organize and provide their own side dishes, kind of like an organized pot luck dinner.  We lucked out this year and our side dishes were excellent, making for a very enjoyable meal.  It's nice to see what other folks consider as in their meal planning for this well celebrated day on which food is an important part.  Marg brought mashed potatoes [5 pounds] and brussel sprouts [3 pounds] with diced almonds and kept them warm in her slow cookers while we served the turkey.  The cranberry sauce was unlike any I have had and was very good.  The sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows was a bit like the candied yams Marg makes.  We had home made bread [I brought the butter], some cinnamon pickle zucchini [Marg loved them], squash, and pumpkin pie [with cool whip topping].  At the end Kenny called me over and he had save us a piece of Doris's coconut cream pie [her pies are legendary].  We were so stuffed that I had to bring the pie home for later. 
  Clean up went pretty well with lots of people pitching in and we were out of there shortly after eating.  When I left I thought it would be for a snooze, but it seemed we got a second wind without falling victim to the sleepy turkey syndrome, although we did relax for most of the rest of the afternoon.
  A bit later I discovered Wilma was back at her place so went over to get her.  She had a nice picture of Elmo that she wanted to crop and get a copy of.  I had scanned it and wanted her to decide what the end result would look like.  She is a very talented artist and Marg has 3 or 4 of her pieces that she treasures.  Marg and her have a special connection, so Marg wanted to get the picture reproduced for her.  While she was at our place she had people looking for her but after finding her at our place kind of shook their heads and moved on.  We had a nice visit with her and got the changes made to the pic, then walked her home as it was dark.  She took the opportunity to show Marg the new floor she had installed a couple days ago as well as some other stuff.  Her car was unlocked, so in the process of locking it I managed to set off the alarm, which is always fun.  That attracted some of the neighbours who seem to keep an eye out for her well being.  Being a car I am not familiar with, the alarm went on for quite a while, arghhh embarrassing.
  After a short walk we went out to Walmart to get the pictures printed and a copy of the Thursday paper.  With tomorrow being black Friday there would be lots of adverts in the paper, so I wanted to see what was available.  While at Walmart, we were surprised to learn they had an advance sale with some great deals.  The parking lot was full of shoppers with most seeming to be buying toys for Christmas.  There were other deals as well, like an HP printer for $19, lots of remote cars and trucks for as low as $10, electric frying pan for $10, computer mouse $9, too many to remember them all.
  When we got back Marg had a couple of visitors, a friend of hers from south of Leduc who has a park model here and her friend.  They are just down for a couple of weeks and haven't had a visit for about a year now.  After they left, she went through the flyers and I think has a strategy mapped out for tomorrow [Black Friday].  One of the deals she saw advertised is a waffle iron for $10 and when you buy it you get a $10 rebate that you apply for, so it is actually free.  Another is gold earrings for $20 [I think we're going to that one].  From some of the media reports, I think it is called black Friday after the fighting over door opening specials or hot deals and the resulting black eyes.  LOL
  The weather was gorgeous today and got to almost 80F.  The wind blew in the morning and much stronger in the evening.  The night time temperatures are getting quite chilly.  I think it is forecast to be about 48 or 50 [9 or 10 C] tonight and you would think we have never been the cold before, LOL.  Anyway not a pleasant evening to sit out on the breezeway, so we are chill-axing in our recliner chairs in the trailer tonight.  Need to rest up after a busy day and in preparation for a bit of running around tomorrow.  Tune in tomorrow for a report on our success in finding great deals.