Thanksgiving in Whitehall, 2023

A lot of prep in the kitchen today, for our Thanksgiving dinner. I mostly just hung back and ate snacks. A rough job, but someone’s got to do it.

A staple of our visit: a charcuterie board before dinner. We had a lot of those, during our visit.

Kirt, with the turkey out of the oven. Here, he’s removing a layer of salt that was placed on the turkey, which formed a kind of outer coating/shield during the cooking process.

We were all marveling at how large this thing was. And surprised to see it still intact, in one piece.

Dinner with the Holder family.

Post dinner, we ended up playing a game called Monikers. I got this game earlier in the year, but haven’t really had the chance or occasion to break it out.

I learned of this game from the excellent site Shut Up & Sit Down. The review looked great, and it seemed like an excellent premise.

While it took us a little bit to adjust to the rules, we quickly got the hang of it. And there was definitely a lot of yelling and a lot of laughing (and at least one instance of clothing almost being ripped off, dramatically).

I think Jackson and Grace might have been a bit skeptical, initially. And I was too, honestly. But it’s a great game, and once things get going… the repetition and memory and shortcuts take over.

Here’s a video review of the game:

A slow, easy day. And a fun end to the evening. Liz and I ended up staying up late with Jackson, and I think it blew his mind a little to realize that I’ve been documenting a lot of our collective time together. And that he was surprised to see I and so many posts with him (ranging from now to Detroit to Georgia to Kansas City).

I think he was also surprised to find that he (like most of my family members) has his own tag on the blog. Five bucks says that he’s possibly reading this, at some point in the future (Hi Jackson).

It was a lot of fun to show him around the blog, and to see him in some ways re-experience some of the memories I wrote about. This blog is primarily a space for me to record things: moments, events, photographs, memories. But it’s always nice when I hear about others using it as well, as a kind of communal time capsule or photo album.

Related:
Games and Thanksgiving Dinner (2022)
Thanksgiving at Whitehall Lakehouse, 2021