Thanksgiving Family Style

Thanksgiving came to North Carolina bringing loads of relatives, great food (including the traditional chopped liver turkey),
photo opts, a trip to visit local colleges for my niece Katy (come South for college...you will love it Katy!), oodles of fun. My sister Linda and her tribe came to town - husband Dave, daughters Katy and Marina. We loved having them stay with us. Molly was in heaven having Marina around and it was so great for me to have my sister nearby.

Loads of cousins were in town - the Nadels, the Nadels, the Walshs, the Pellings. We got to meet a few we had only seen in pictures. Check out our large family photo!

We've Gone Medieval!

Molly has been studying Medieval Times at in her Social Studies class. This has been very fun. It has included a trip to the Medieval Times Restaurant in Myrtle Beach, S. Carolina (a 3 1/2 hour bus ride each way...oh yeah!) And Molly had an assignment to build a model of a castle. I'm so proud of her. She worked very hard on her model. Here are some pics of the Castle Keep in the Kingdom of Mordor.

Sadness and Joy - of the Rodent Variety

Though only a month had passed since our precious CocoHoney Guinea Pig went to GP heaven, we knew time was fleeting for our pet rat, Sammie Squeeks. Sammie had developed a very large tumor on her chest and I had to make the hard choice to have her sent to Rat heaven. She was starting to fall in her cage and looked decidedly ungainly and unhappy. So, on Friday Nov 9th, I took her to the vet and she slipped quietly away. She will be so very missed!

But as one rodent door closes, another opens...or so the saying goes. Molly and I felt that the household was too empty, so today we went to PetSmart and adopted a new being to be a new member of the household...introducing, Clara Cuddles, a new guinea pig. She is very little, very sweet, very soft and very cute. She is orange and white, with a black butt and one back black leg. What can I say...I'm a sucker for a fuzzy face!