Pull……………BANG!

For Thanksgiving, we went up to Vanessa’s parent’s house in Llano. Where? Llano. It’s between Palmdale and Wrightwood. If you’ve ever looked at the San Gabriel mountains from San Dimas and said, “I wonder what’s on the other side?” it’s Llano. I left work early on Friday, picked Vanessa up, and then rushed over to my mom’s place. Well, I was planning on rushing, but it took an hour with all the traffic. We picked up my mom and rushed up the 15 freeway. Well, I was planning on rushing, but it took 2 hours. I knew it would be slow, so it wasn’t much of a surprise.

I was a little tired when we got there, but they already had the spa heated up and her dad offered me a glass of wine. Within 10 minutes I was relaxed as could be. It’s amazing when you get up there and there is no one around. No sound, no pollution, just twinkling lights and a warm spa out on the deck..

The next day (Thanksgiving) we rolled out of bed around 7:30 am. Early for me, but her dad woke up at 2:00 am to go to work, and Uncle Tim was already sealing the deck. I did some work on my laptop as I ate a bagel, drank some coffee, and wiped the cobwebs from my eyes. I started to feel insufficient sitting in the kitchen with the women, so I helped Tim work on the sliding glass doors. The three sliders went from hard to open to opening with your pinky in about an hour.

Tim pulled out the clay-pigeon launchers and the 12 gauge. After a couple of minutes and some instructions on how to shoot a shotgun I was yelling pull and firing away. I’ve shot guns before, but it’s been since high-school and never a shotgun. On my third shot I started hitting the targets about every other time. Fun! Then he showed me how to take the shotgun apart, lube it, and clean it.

Dinner was great with two turkeys and all of the regular fixin’s (stuffing, cranberry, mashed potatoes, gravy, olives, etc.). My mom made her Mmmlicious (the name we call it) which is yams with walnuts, spices, and marshmallows melted on top. Yummy.

After dinner, Uncle Tim was still restless, so he started staining the deck. I put up a new light fixture just so I wouldn’t look lazy. I think it turned out well. Vanessa’s brother Donald showed up after dinner, but kept to himself and stayed in the kitchen and the guestroom. Not a word from either of us.

For dessert Vanessa’s mom made pumpkin pie and her dad made a blueberry cheesecake. They were both delicious. After watching the sunset we headed home with my mom. A nice way to spend Thanksgiving.