Ever since I can remember my family has celebrated Thanksgiving with the Tanners.  (my mom's brother's family who lives just outside of Logan).  Each year we alternate which home we're at, but this year we doubled up and went back to Logan.  We start looking forward to Thanksgiving weekend in about August.  We made a pact when I was 21 that we would never miss a Thanksgiving together...  and for the most part, the cousins have held true to that pact.  In fact, we've actually gained a few over the last few years.  We really do love being together.  There were 17 of us this year that stayed at the Lone Pine Ranch (my Aunt's house) and were a big support for each other.  This year we definitely felt the absence of my Uncle Bert.  It wasn't the same without him.  But, we made it through -- still keeping true to all of our traditions and remembering him all along the way.

Our families are big tradition keepers and the things we look forward to most each year are:

• My mom's amazing homemade rolls (she usually brings about 32 dozen, this year she only did 28)
• Kook's incredible stuffed mushrooms (we actually made more this year and got leftovers for 3 days!)
• Annual Thanksgiving walk up into the Wellsvilles - followed by a bit of a trot for a few of us looking for additional punishment
• Rounds of Catch Phrase, Cranium, Cribbage, Krokano and now Carcassonne
• Bowling at Logan Lanes on Saturday night.  Most of us bowl only once a year, and it's the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  We're all (well almost all) absolutely dreadful.  We are thrilled if we break 100.  We're also the loudest bunch in the alley (as you could only expect from our crowd).
• Dinner at the Mandarin Garden -- Best Chinese food in Logan.  We always hit the Mandarin after we've worked up an appetite at Logan Lanes.

We mainly just love being all together.  We sleep very little and soak in as much time together as we can.

Lee and I decided we would add a bit more chaos to the weekend and at midnight on Thanksgiving night we decided we wanted to surprise his family and drive to Bruneau the following day. It was about 250 miles from Logan and we traveled it in a fast 3.5 hours.  We were there in time for lunch and stayed through dinner -- helping remove carpet, place tile and sheet rock in preparation for a wood stove for Lee's mom.  (I say we, but really I watched... I don't have the resourceful genes that all the Merrick boys seem to have inherited).  We saw nearly all of his siblings.  We were really happy to get the chance to visit with his brother's family that was there from Montana.  They won't be around at Christmas so we were glad we got a chance to hang out with them for a few hours....  It was definitely worth the trip.  We're so glad we went.

We're now back and exhausted! (As is the trend when returning from a Kalemba/Tanner eating event.) But we're super excited to get our first Christmas tree together and continue our gingerbread house tradition!

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