Due to very strong popular demand by my ever faithful band of blog followers, here is the latest update from Sunny San Diego.

This last Thanksgiving (yes, I know that T-giving was over and done with almost two months ago) we did the hajj to the Old Country (Hammon, Okla) to spend quality time with family on the farm.  Hailey and Jake flew in from San Francisco and San Diego and Kim, Bob (the dog) and I drove the long southern route through Tucson, Tombstone, Bisbey, El Paso and Carlsbad to Hammon.  We stopped and toured Carlsbad Caverns the day before making it in to the Folks place.  Joining us in Hammon were Denny, Jeanne, and Lisa from Las Vegas along with Donna and Dom's kids Dana and Nicky including spouses, children and friends too numerous to mention.  The only ones missing were Jill and Tammy and their spouses.  Donna and Dom absolutley out did themselves in hosting an enormous group of people who did their best to eat and drink them out of house and home.  The food, drink and laughter was outrageously over the top.  Grammie and Papa seemed to also have a really good time with all the family there.



We spent quality time doing the usual things like watch Uncle Oscar and Alan work cattle:

Alan saddled up several of his finest horses so all the city folk could have the opportunity to try out the cowboy thing.  Even a big city boy like Jake managed to not hurt himself.

We were lucky enough to be in town over deer season and as is also usual, there were a couple of dead ones hanging in the big garage.

Jake and I went quail hunting up on Big Grandpa's Place and the Blount Place and had absolutely no luck finding any birds at all.  It was a nice walk though.

All us "younger" cousins and kids did some serious dancing and drinking at the Cowboy Palace in Elk City.  Those country folks do know how to have some fun.  Try $.25 beers until  10:00pm!

Oscar encouraged us to pick turnips right out of the field.  Seems he sort of has about 50 acres of turnips by mistake.  They were delicious once we figured out how to cook 'um.

It is times like these that really make you appreciate being part of a true Oklahoma family.  I laughed more during those three days than I've laughed in a year and the pleasure we all get from seeing each other and catching up is well worth the time and effort to make the hajj.  I especially like the fact that my children seem to enjoy spending time with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins as much as I do.  This is really what Thanksgiving is all about because we really are lucky to have each other and have the opportunity to get together at least once a year.

Here are most all the pics from this trip including a few shots we took on the way from San Diego.

http://picasaweb.google.com/robhib/HammonThanksgiving09?authkey=Gv1sRgCIn9v6GNhffpzAE&feat=directlink