The Best Holiday

Thanksgiving is, by far, the best holiday of the year. It's because the whole community starts to feel the same festive mood around the same time, and for pretty much an entire week people enjoy each others' company. For us it's those Peloza kids.

Right on cue, reminiscent of last year, the weather turned cold on Sunday. Real cold. Like snow/ice on the table outside cold.

It was perfect weather for bundling up and playing outside. Baseball.

Archery. Turns out those Peloza kids can hit the side of a barn. Or at least an old garage that looks like a barn.

Thanksgiving is also a time to eat out, because, you know, we're out doing so much stuff. Like hunting for heritage turkeys. The thing I've found with having lunch out is that those Peloza kids are the best lunch companions in the world. No lie, at each of three places three days in a row, people unprompted told me how great they were. The plan involves heavy doses of tic tac toe.

All in one day, we found a turkey, had a great lunch, bundled up in Kentucky blue to play outside... and still found time to bake cookies. While watching football, a common theme and a big part of why Thanksgiving is the best holiday.

Lunch the next day involved more TTT, a number guessing game, and hangman. Both kids had a habit of picking a number virtually at the top of their range (e..g, 1 to 20 would be 19). So I pointed out this bias and he started to play off it. Using a lower number, but once in a while still using a high one. Smart kid, shown here pondering his next move.

 

Lunch with those Peloza kids was so enjoyable that we actually lingered for an extra half hour. Parents of kids who have ever eaten out with them are all gasping in disbelief now. I know. The server asked if we wanted dessert, and without missing a beat Levi asked "what do you have?" The server felt sort of bad for putting the question out there to the table and not the parent, but what the heck. Life is short and we're having fun.

 

Even Picachoo had fun.

So more hangman. What's a six letter word for awesome?

OK, so it's not like Wheel of Fortune where you get a hint on what the word is, but she's pretty awesome.

Off to Monkey Joe's to burn off some energy and demonstrate the front flip maneuver. This is a still from a video. If you want to see the video, you have to come over.

Monday night was one of the most anticipated events of the year. The kids tried silks with Alexis. No captions to explain, what else can I say?

Lunch also involved taking copious amounts of selfies.

Eva starts to get shy, an occasional tendency when attention is cast.

 

After lunch a walk in the woods. Followed by a trip to the car dealer to buy Kentucky Blue, our new van. I love it how buying a car, a trade for a Mercedes to a van no less, is just a footnote in a three day stretch.

The day culminates with a late basketball game. When in Kentucky... It's not quite like tennis, with so much to see at either end of the court at any given time. But you wouldn't know it from this picture.

One more picture to make sure we got Overalls Man in the photo. His secret identity is busted! It's a bird, it's a plane! It's a tractor moving very slowly! It's Overalls Man! There is Levi, still pondering which number to pick in tomorrow's game.

All of this in three days.