Turkey Day

Well, my week off has come and gone! Thanksgiving was wonderful this year. I drove to Abilene Tuesday night to help my cousins with the preparations. Dana's parents came Tuesday night also and we played a mean game of 42 that night after dinner. Aunt Joyce and I were on a team against Dana and Uncle Charles. I had a perfect first hand (I'm telling you, 5 of one suit and two doubles!) and I was the second to bid. I bid 2 marks, but Aunt Joyce, my PARTNER, outbid me...3 marks. Luckily, we pulled it off (even though I was a bit upset...I really wanted it!). So we play 3 games of 7 hands each. Aunt Joyce and I won the first round, Uncle Charles and Dana won the second round, and we were tied with "AL" on the third round. I drew my dominoes... 4-4, 4-6, 4-5, 4-1, 3-3, 2-2, 1-1...another perfect hand (let me just say that this NEVER happens, especially to me!). Unfortunately, I was the first to bid. I tried the 2 marks thing again. Dana passed, Aunt Joyce passed, and Uncle Charles...decided to raise my bid to 3 marks! He bid in 2s and I knew I had it (the double). So, even if I didn't get to play my hand, I did get to catch one of Uncle Charles' first tricks to set their team and win the game! Hooray!

Wednesday rolls around and I helped Dana and Aunt Joyce prepare the feast. We ordered our turkeys from Betty Rose's in Abilene, and the Williamses brought the ham. I was in charge of mixing together the "company potatoes" while Dana and Aunt Joyce put together the dressing, pink and orange salads, and other things. When we finished, Uncle Charles spent the next 4 hours slicing the meat. What a trooper!

On Thursday, the fun began. My family drove up from Kerrville and the other 40-some-odd folks from our Sheerer lineage all showed up at University Church of Christ's Fellowship Hall for dinner. Our reunions have expanded so much that normal houses are a bit cramped for all of us. At the church, we were able to all eat in the same room (!), and then spread out to either play games, watch the Cowboys, play on the playground, etc. We also had enough room for everyone to participate in our men vs. women game of Trivial Pursuit. The men earned each slice of pie before the women earned even two! However, for some reason, they couldn't land in the middle of the board. This bought us ladies some time and we caught up, but it wasn't enough to beat them. They ended up winning. We're good sports, though...

After lunch, we played our first annual game of Sheerer family Ultimate Frisbee. My family doesn't exactly "sport" and we've never had a game of football after the feast. We have been known to play knock-out basketball, but not as many folks can participate. I believe Ultimate Frisbee will become a tradition, even though we all agreed that we probably need to work out at least a little before Thanksgiving next year... It wore us out!

Here are some more pictures that I wanted to add. I never realized how many blondes are in my extended family. We all had similar lengths of hair, so we had to capture the moment ----------------------------------->

Every year, we have to take family pictures. This year, we took a Rich family picture and a Sheerer cousins picture.
To see the extra pictures, click here. I am so thankful for my family and for our crazy traditions.

Good Times...

Well, this weekend was full of wonderful events with fun (distant) family and friends. I had the opportunity to go see Moscow's Nutcracker Ballet. Although very impressed, I was a bit disappointed because there was no orchestra! They danced to a recording... Also, a friend from church, Jason, went as well (unbeknownst to me), and as we were reviewing the evening, he pointed out that it seemed at times like a recital. The story line was a bit lost in the showcasing of the stars. Talent, yes, but general flow of the ballet, no. I attended the ballet with Kim, a long-lost cousin of mine, and her mom and roomate. Before the event, and in celebration of her birthday, we had her favorite meal, which ironically happened to be my grandmother's "famous" enchiladas! She is related to the other side of my family, but knew my paternal grandparents when her family lived in San Antonio. crazy, I know... It was a fun-filled evening.

Sunday morning, I met my good friends Kami and Katie at early service for church. Unfortunately, I have programmed my body clock to sleep in at least until 8 on Sunday mornings. Well, early service starts at 8, so needless to say, I was quite tired. After church (and class), the gals and I picked up Clay and went to the Cowboys game. This was my first experience at a pro-football game. We had amazing seats (thanks SWA and Katie), just 17 rows away from the end zone. Kickoff was at noon, and toward the end of the first half, we were getting kind of hungry. You just can't go to a pro game without experiencing the fabulous eats. Kami and Katie were up for nachos, and I wanted a burger. We all stood in line for a while (lots of folks had the same idea). I purchased the burger (from a gal who went to Hardin Simmons... thanks, ACU sweatshirt), but when Katie and Kami got to the front of their line, the nachos were all gone... A single tear was shed. Luckily, the burger line had diminished a great deal and the sustenance was sufficient.

Back to the game... The newspapers say the Cowboys lucked out because they weren't really playing their very best. I tried to fake knowing what was going on... Anne, my roomie, LOVES the NFL and I've attempted to keep up with the sport, but I just can't truly get into it. I prefer basketball. However, being at the game was a treat and I enjoyed actually watching football. I followed what was going on and cheered in the right spots! There were several times that the Cowboys were right up near the goal line, but just couldn't get their act together. FINALLY, we got to see some action (apart from the amazing 56 yard field goal), and a touchdown was scored! The crowd goes wild. All in all, it was a good game (because we won) and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to attend.

After the game, we had about an hour to kill before we had to be at church. We went to the local Sack 'N Save and bought hot cocoa and marshmallows to enjoy at Katie's house. After church, a big group of us went out to dinner at Cheddar's. I am really enjoying getting to know folks at church. In the past two months, there have been occasions to actually "bond" with some aquends (more than an acquaintance, less than a friend). It began with the Boles Children's Home trip which was so much fun. Then, we had our class retreat last weekend (see Katie's blog... I'm pretending to pick my nose... I know...) and our Thanksgiving box collaborative effort, which was amazing. Imagine, hundreds of families, and people of all ages putting together 250 complete Thanksgiving dinners in less than 45 minutes. I have never seen such organized chaos in my life!

Back to Cheddars, let me just say yum... I enjoyed the buffalo style chicken tenders, but as usual, I forgot my doggie bag, and unfortunately didn't get to enjoy the fabulous tenders today for lunch... sniff... This concludes a fun-filled weekend to begin my week-long break for Thanksgiving. Happy Turkey Day, everyone!

Succumbed

Yes, it's true... I have succumbed to the blogging world. I guess it's a good way to share my pictures and oh-so-exciting life without imposing in the inboxes of my family and friends through a dated mass e-mail. So, to begin my first blog, I'll briefly talk about what I'm doing at work... Hopefully I'll have more to talk about eventually than just work, but y'all need some background info!

We are studying C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Since the movie is coming December 9th, the other 6th grade Language Arts teachers and I thought it might be fun. Well, my students are so psyched about the movie and all of the hype because of it. Several students who normally are not at all interested in school are buying their own copies of TLWW so they can read it on their own. D students are making 100s on their tests and the angels are rejoicing!

I've tried to recreate Narnia in my classroom, so my students can escape from school for 50 minutes and be focused on our novel. I used brown butcher paper outside my door to outline a wardrobe. I put up a shower curtain rod in the door jamb and hung coats on it. As the children walk in the wardrobe door and through the coats, they come upon two Christmas trees of different sizes and a lamppost! Snowflakes are hanging from the ceiling. As the winter spell of Narnia is broken, I'll take the snowflakes down and see if the kids notice. Then, maybe we can all decorate the trees together. We'll see.