Thanksgiving

The Oklawaha River in the Ocala National Forest.

US 19 travelling through the Ocala National Forest.

Grandma's (and Grandpa's) house in the Ocala National Forest.

Over the river and through the woods, to grandma's house we go. And that's what we did for Thanksgiving. Since my parents and Hut's parents are no longer with us and all our family is more or less long distance, we've spent the last 2 Thanksgivings eating out.
This year we got invited to my sons grandparents house. Yep, that's right, my ex-husband's parents. We have always gotten along with them. We would stop by and visit them when they lived at the beach and we even made a few trips to Ocala to visit with them when they moved. And I get along with my ex husband most of the time, so of course we decided to go. My sons were thrilled as they have never really had both parents together for a holiday.

Wade, my oldest son, took most of the photos for me. Thanks, Wade.

Fried Turkey was on the menu for the day. For those who have never had a fried turkey, you just don't know what you are missing.

Here is my ex-husband, Jim, prepping the turkey by injecting a sauce he made. Since we didn't have a syringe for injection, he just poked holes in the turkey and pour it in. Whatever was in that mix was very good.
Here is my husband, Hut, lowering the prepared turkey into the deep fryer.

These are my favorite pictures from the day......both dads checking on the turkey.Here is the turkey frying. It took all of 38 minutes to fry this turkey.
The turkey is done. And no it's not burnt. The darker spots are where the injected seasoning settled.

My two handsome sons enjoying the weather and company, waiting for the turkey to cook. That is Princess on Scott's lap.
This is Ashley, Wade & Scott's sister. Isn't she beautiful? She is Jim's daughter with his 2nd wife.

This is me, Hut, Wade and Ashley. Just enjoying the day and the company.

This is Jim, Scott and Grampa Frank (standing).
This is Grandma Tootsie in the background. Tarah is making a dip for the apples that Tony is slicing. Tony is my boys cousin and Tarah is his girlfriend.
All of us waiting on that turkey.....from left to right (if I can see everyone) is Tony, Tarah, Mike's wife (sorry, didn't catch your name), Mike (standing), Jim, Scott, me, Hut, Wade & Ashley. Uncle Bill took the picture. This is Uncle Bill.
This is Uncle Bill's wife....Aunt Dar
This is everyone enjoying the fruits of our labor that day. We even had leftovers.

We also had a fire to sit around while we waited for our food to settle so we could have dessert. But I guess we were all so stuffed that no one thought about taking pictures of that. There's always next year. Because yes, we are going next year. Hopefully this will be our new Thanksgiving tradition. Thank you all for spending this day with us.