The thanksgiving week begins with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and perhaps that's a good sponsorship, as I was in the Galleria today, and Ruby was so excited to go into a Macy's. We did not buy anything, but she knew who they were. We began our visit at Nanny's where she had some amazing food that we had to be careful not to each to much of and not get any of Granny's good food. After our visit with Nanny, we started the Honda Odyssey parking lot at Grannys house, and moved all our luggage upstairs as we would be spending two nights here.
After a fun meal and some outdoor playtime, we sat around the table and played some games. The first game (Codename) we played required your team to figure out words based on a person saying ONE WORD. It was pretty fun, and very new to me. I learned quickly that when Colby says Patrick, that should not jump you immediately to a Spongebob reference and guess STAR, but instead to a move GHOST reference. Hahaha, in hindsight, this was a good hint, but on this night, my brain was not in sync with Colby's. It was a pretty neat game, and I am sure will return.
We followed this with Poetry for Neanderthals. Melissa always amazes me with her command of the Neanderthal language. But Katie is the hardest to judge because so many of her one syllable words are pronounced with two. I don't think anything as crazy as crustacean was used, but I know I got hit with the word "little", and sam got hit with the word "water". It was a fun night for most folks, but those guys were frustrating for others. Before going to bed that night, we got out the air mattress for the girls, but I then realized I left the pump in our downstairs den...and the mattress has a built in pump, but we had no batteries for it. So Katie had a pump, but it was only for use in a car. So me and Davis went outside in the rain to pump up an air mattress next to the van.
The next morning, all of the girls went out shopping. One day they will learn that Magan is at a whole other level of shopping. But I think they are learning to just enjoy the times where they sit and wait. It sounded like a bunch of laughs from the stories that were shared, and from the sheer number of selfies taken, I think it was indicative of a good girl day. So because I was not there and these stories are not mine, I will play some codenames with ONE or TWO WORDS. Each of these words seems to spark a laugh in my wife, and perhaps will help generate memories and stories one day...LIONEL RITCHIE, GIFT CARD, SWEET TEA, KARMA COFFEE.
So what did the boys do on this day? We went to play frisbee golf as Heritage Park. The weather was perfect, much warmer than I thought it would be, leading to me sharing with my brothers and nephews the skill to take off an undershirt, without taking off the overshirt. The course was much shorter this time than last we played, but regardless, our throws were rather terrible. So many trees were hit this day. We played the first round, and Sam ended up winning the singles round, then we paired up based on the singles scores...Sam and Davis, Ben and me, Colby and John. John cracked us all up by smacking a sign with his frisbee make a super loud noise on hole one. We jokingly pointed out an even worse sign to hit on hole 2, and sure enough, he tagged that one as well. On the group round, it was mainly me and Ben keeping a small lead until right at the end when Colby and John came back and tied us up in the end. We decided to just play closest to the hole to decide the winner, and my shot bounced off of two trees to land closest. I'll take a lucky win any day.
After our disc golf, we hit the pizza buffet and we hit it well. SO much pizza, then so much cinnamon rolls. A cheap pizza buffet is one of the best places in all of America. So wonderful. I almost slapped Colby when I saw him at the salad area, but then realized he was just getting peppers for his pizza. I think we left all basically on the verge of puking. Altho I felt bad for the girls when I got back to Grannys. They had fun, but had not gotten to go out, so we went and got some snacks at Dollar General and some fun drinks at mcdonalds.
That evening there were more games, and a good full round of "Paper" where I remember Laney being referred to as the sweet little baby, and Ivey getting pegged for a screaming baby for this day. Crazy stuff like Norvel Blackstock were in this list. I was pointed at for being weird and anytime a musical needed named. Grandaddy's infamous "ONE" was mentioned a couple of times. And at some point it became pavlovian to just scream "REBA" when anyone pointed to Katie. There was later some games of farkle, a game of nines, and a late night finale with Hearts. I surprised even myself with a no-pass run at the end to pull in all hearts and win the game on the final hand.
And then it was morning, and coffee was drunk, food was warmed for the Ratcliff gathering, and it was time to go. I tend to joke with many people that I am not a big fan of family gatherings, but this one restored my love of it. Probably just my reclusive nature that must be snatched out of the hole of my house by my socialite wife, but I am glad she does. It was really fun. And sad to wave goodbye to the family, then again wave goodbye to the family, and then again to wave goodbye to the family...
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