Chris and I traveled to Holland Michigan for Thanksgiving.  As is our ‘new’ tradition we met Mary Jane and John, Skip and Claire and Denise, and this year Craig flew in to spend some time with us.  We have been visitiing Southwest Michigan and enjoying it, and this year went back to the Holland Michigan area.  For a change of pace we found a house for rent online that we tried.  I was a little tentative (is the house really there?) but with some checking we booked it and it turned out great.   While other houses in the area that rent for vacationer’s are on the big Lake or in a small town, this was in a residential area a little out of Holland, but offered 5 bedrooms which fit us well.  And the house was beautifully decorated and worked out well..

So this Thanksgiving we did not have to find a restaurant that was open. Claire had made the turkey and we brought the rest of the meal to make, and had a full kitchen to work with.  Hotel rooms don’t offer a lot of cooking capabilities!  So well we spent a lot of time walking the town we also spent a lot of time at the house together and ate at the house as well as out on the town.  And it just so happens that one of the best regional breweries in the midwest, New Holland,  has a brew pub in town that we had a chance to visit!

So we hope you had a great Thanksgiving.   There are some pictures of us on the albums page.   Now back to work tomorrow, and possibly some shoveling in the morning for all of us.  But Chris and I look forward to our first trip of the season to Florida on the evening of the Dec. 10th.  Our good times and blessings are tempered tonight by our prayers for our old friends Phil and Judy Ortiz,  as Phil’s cancer has given them some significant challenges this weekend.  And we pray for Phil to pull through again.

We had a prowler in the back yard.   Earlier in the week this fellow showed up along the fence line between the trailers.   He was there the day the guys came to abandon our well, and they did not want to get out of their truck!   Our neighbor Judy could see them from her house and had a good laugh.   This was one of her prank on us!   This was Darrell’s rug from one of the bears he shot.  But there dog had taken a disliking to it.  It previously had pee’d on it.  and they cleaned it and put a spray on to keep the dog away, but it must have worn off.  Because the dog went after it again.  Darrell says it is ruined, so Judy decided to have some fun with it.

Snow covering when we woke up this morning.   It melted off early morning, and we had snow and rain all morning.  Cold and damp!!  It finally stopped in the afternoon and the sun came out for a few minutes.  But then more clouds and some more rain.  And very windy tonight.

I managed to get our trailer tucked beside for the garage for the winter.  And pulled out the hitch from the truck, so I have a spacious truck bed again.   And a few small projects.  So tonight we have a fire going and relaxing to end the evening.   Tomorrow I plan a ride to Fort McCoy to do some scouting.  I did not get a permit to hunt there last year, but this year we are all back in.  And Lou, retired Army,  got us rooms back on the fort again.  We have not been on the fort since 9/11, so it will be a short ride to hunting opening morning.   That is only 2 weeks away.

And as soon as hunting is done comes Thanksgiving, and we will be going to Southwest Michigan again.  Back near Holland, we have enjoyed that town in the past.  So we are looking forward to that.

Take care, stay warm.