Berck was dismayed to find that my family doesn’t serve mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. Instead we have sauerkraut. Yum!

We had two turkeys–Nathan spent all day smoking them. Berck had asked if he could make his mom’s famous refigerator rolls, but somehow all the necessary ingredients showed up except yeast. Dad and my Uncle Dave went into town to see if anything was open and returned triumphant. “I hope we got the right kind,” Dad said. Berck was pleased; they had brought back Active Dry instead of Rapid Rise, like I always seem to do. “They had two kinds,” Dad continued, “All Natural and Extra Protein.”

The yeast delay meant the roll dough didn’t rise enough in time for dinner. But they’re refrigerator rolls! The dough was stuck in the fridge, and we enjoyed them the next night.

We had Mom’s famous dressing, green beans, and asparagus. For dessert Berck was dismayed no chocolate was served. Instead we had caramel cake, my famous pecan pie, and Steph’s famous pumpkin pie.

On Friday, Nathan, Stephanie, Ian, Kimber, Berck, and I hiked up to one of my favorite spots around Highlands: Devil’s Courthouse. At the top we enjoyed a picnic lunch lugged up by Steph. Nate had lugged up Ian. Kimber had lugged up Berck. After working up a sweat climbing to the top, Berck asked, “Wouldn’t you love a cold beer just now?”

“Yeah!”

Berck reached into my backpack and pulled out two bottles of Shiner.

The three couples played Cranium that night. Dad doesn’t like board games, but he really seemed to enjoy Cranium. Berck and I kicked butt, as usual.

The next day, Berck and I slept in till noon and then spent the rest of the day cooking. I baked bread, and Berck made all-day bolognese sauce, roasted rosemary potatoes, and emptied most of the remaining contents of the refrigerator into a killer salad. We played more Cranium with Ben replacing Dad, who ran out of steam and headed to bed. And we kept awaking Ian with our laughter. Berck and I won again. Of course.

Ian is crawling! He just started a couple of weeks ago, and he’s not quite got it all down yet. He thrashes his arms and legs and somehow propels his body in a soldier-crawl across the floor. Nathan will toss a toy across the carpet and say, “Go get it!” Ian will gaze at the toy longingly and then start flailing elbows and knees until he gets to his destination. Then he does a little victory “swim,” joyfully swinging all appendages at once in celebration of accomplishing his goal.

Ian can’t sit up by himself, but if you put him in a sitting position, he can stay sitting as long as he likes. He sat with Berck on the couch for a half hour straight, the two of them playing with Berck’s watch. It makes a cool clinking sound when you squeeze the links together.

We were the last to leave with Mom and Dad on Sunday afternoon. The car’s transmission starting acting bad as we drove down to Atlanta, so Mom and Dad spent the night in Columbus after dropping us off at the airport. Then they left the car there to get fixed by the folks who repaired the transmission a month ago.

We had no problems getting back to Oklahoma. I just had to get up half dead at six after getting in late the night before.