A retrospective photo essay.....

Especially for all the non-Ohio dwelling Richardsons, and Julie.

Okey dokey, so it all began with the singing of that "We gather together" song which I like but do not know the name of. I imagine Nathan is leading us in song in this photo. Or perhaps he is yawning. Either way, the song was sung.
Oh wait, here is a picture of us being led righteously in song.
Then the reading of what people are thankful for and the guessing of who the gratitude could be attributed to. (This was the part where they mocked me for my grateful ways, just look at all these jeering faces).


Ok maybe not so much jeering as endearing. All the kids got very cutely shy and giggly when their gratitude was guessed.

After grace, it was Time To Eat: Kiddy Table/bar #1


More sophisticated kiddy table #2 Doesn't Samuel look pious?Look how civilized were were this year dahlings! Place-cards! This is Mateo's interpretation of either my name, or me or neither. It could be flowers or it could be limbless martians. Either way, he was thankful to have me there. I could feel the love.


I forced Amy to re-create this Martha moment.

The gang. Except for Aaron who is taking the photo. And Cindi who was talking to the kids. 'Cos they are both selfless that way.And after that light meal came the....

Somewhere in this time period, Awesome Aaron bravely went out to play soccer with the kids and keep them from killing each other.Coach Nathan entered the fray later when he had finished talking politics with Bill and Corey Baum. And I joined much later, in order to create more space for pie.

You know, I thought I'd be able keep up with the younguns ok. I learned two things:
A. I am old and 2. When you are old your reflexes shall we say, decline. I would see the ball. My brain would say, "Quick! Here comes the ball-kick it" My leg would say..."Oh, yeah, yeah yeah!..right!..getting on that!..hang on!, here it comes, it's going be good...look out...hey..wait, I thought you said there was a ball there?"

I had to resort to playing like the U3 team does. Ie: shove people out the way and also, hold onto their shirts so they cannot reach the ball, after having dealt with them thusly, pick up the ball and put it manually in the goal. Humbling. But effective.

Here is the supremely flattering photo (I'm nothing if not an accurate journalist) taken as we emerged from that schooling. Yes that is sweat and gasping for air you see. I'm not sure what was going on with Nathan though. He just does expressions like that.
Then came the time for everyone (except neurotic Nathan) to play board games. Bill Mathis got angry with me for steering people away from picking his cards in Apples to Apples. He Was So Mad. I wish that guy would get into an anger management class or something.

In the end, Amy's mother dominated. Just like last year. Or maybe it was her dad. Either way, I warn you not to play Apples to Apples with this cut-throat duo. It will only break your heart.


Whilst we were so occupied the children industriously destroyed any semblance of order in the basement. And settled down in cozy compartments as "babies" to watch movies.


*Not photographed: the yearly debate over whether to get up and go shopping at unholy hours on Black Friday. The scrabbling through hundreds of circulars with unimpressive deals. The left overs eating dinner. (Did I mention that we tend to stay for a good 10-12 hours when we go for lunch at the Richardson's?) The second run at the pies. The watching of funny baby clips on youtube. The watching of creative wedding dances on youtube. The talking about how we all wished we had cool friends who would make up broadway songs about us to sing at our weddings. And such.

It was a delightful day as always. Thank you Richardsons for so graciously letting us descend upon your home for 10-12 hours . I hope your extended family enjoys reading about your day through the eyes of a not quite naturalized, somewhat kooky foreigner.

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