Thanksgiving in Derby

THURSDAY (Thanksgiving Day)
11 am - Drove to Derby.

Far to much traffic for a Thursday at 11.

2:30pm ish - Arrived in Long Eaton. Visited with Simon (from church) for a while. He was kind enough to bring my coat down from Kielder Water a few weekends ago.
3:30pm ish - Went to Asda to get ingredients to make a green bean casserole - my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner
4:15pm ish - Arrived at Bullocks. Made green bean casserole. Took shower.
7 pm ish - Sat down for Thanksgiving dinner

Clockwise from left: Susan, Ashley, Ken, Joyce, Patty, Tawanda, John, my plate.*

Ashley decided it would be fun to have a whip cream fight with Susan and I. It was. Patty, Ashley and John washing up after dinner

Not sure what, but something was interesting on the computer for Patty Tawanda and John

...elsewhere Ken was talking to Jenny*

And Ashley squeezed all the Thanksgiving food out of Susan

and then we played Apples to Apples - a card game. I lost miserably

FRIDAY

I met Grant for lunch We went to the new "mall" in Derby and this was the view from the table at lunch

After lunch I went to get a lump on my arm checked out at the doctors. It's been there for 4+ weeks. Apparently it's just a bruise that bled into the tissue instead of out like a normal bruise. Welcome to my world of not being normal.

Then I headed back to the Bullocks.

Patty was busy making sweets for the market the next day.

SATURDAY

I met Nick for lunch

We ended up going to see Stardust later Saturday. I then headed over to the house I used to live in to visit with the family that now lives there. And then back to the Bullocks.

SUNDAY

I went to church with Patty and John. Then met up with Andrew for lunch at a Chinese buffet in Nottingham.

After lunch we grabbed an over priced coffee ..and then I headed home. The traffic was horrific. You'd have thought it was Sunday evening traffic in America not England. Not sure why there were so many cars, but they sure did annoy me. Stop start, stop start all the way to London. I still made ok time, but I was fed up of driving.

I forgot to tell you about my Thanksgiving catastrophe. Years and years and years ago, my mother gave me shirts for different holidays - ie 4th July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. These shirts are pretty loud shirts, but wouldn't be noticed in America. They are EXTREMELY overstated for England and get me odd looks every year. But hey - 4 days a year, I can deal with it. For the past 11+ years I've worn these shirts on their dedicated days. But I have lost my Thanksgiving shirt. I was devastated. It was the first time in over a decade I didn't have my Thanksgiving shirt to wear. :(

* Roll call: Patty and John are my "second" set of parents. They took me in as a stray when I came to England 8 1/2 years ago. Susan is their youngest daughter, Asley is her husband. Ken is a good family friend and minister at Ilkeston Church (where they all attend) and also the misiter that married Ben and I. Joyce is John's mother. Tawanda is a friend from church. Jenny (who Ken was on the phone to ... actually the phone was passed around and everyone said hello) is John and Patty's eldest daughter. She lives in America with her husband and their brand new firstborn.

American connections: Patty is American by birth, but has lived in England for the last 30 odd years. Ken's wife was 1/2 American, I beleive she lived most of her early days in America and then moved to Ireland followed by England; Ken also lived in America for a few years after marrying Beryl. Susan and Jenny are (obviously) 1/2 American, but grew up in England.