An American Thanksgiving in Canada

Well I may be a bit late on the Thanksgiving update, but late is better than never. :)  And I have to say first off that none of the photos in this post are mine--most of them are the work of the talented Jared Smith. But my camera skills are a bit lax. So anyway...

When it comes to holidays, I am a gal of traditions. My holidays are pretty inflexible--each little part of them is wrapped in some sort of sentimentality, even if I'm the only one who really feels it. So here's my standard thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving Day:

• Awake to the sounds of mom and dad starting the turkey
• Fall back asleep
• Awake for a second time to the smells of cooking turkey
• Watch the Macy's Thanksigiving Day Parade in my pj's
• Thanksgiving meal

Day after Thanskgiving:

• Early morning sister day
• Christmas tree hunt
• Christmas tree decoration
• Dinner with our family friends the Rotmans

From there, the rest of the weekend was pretty flexible. But most of the activities had one thing in common: family. 

That wasn't so much of an option here, however. So instead, with the help of our friends Jared and Elise, we abandoned all the traditions and did it our own way. It was a different sort of holiday, but it was still a wonderful one.

On Thursday morning, we piled into our little car and headed due northeast. We drove through some beautiful, snowy woods and mountains, and eventually ended up in Kelowna to meet up with Jared and Elise. From there, we headed a bit further on into Vernon to a lakeside resort community called The Outback

We stayed in the vacation home of one of Jared Smith's relatives, and it was a beautiful place to spend the weekend. We played games, watched holiday movies, explored the area, and cooked up a storm. That Friday, we learned that a lot of work and time goes into a full turkey dinner. But we managed to put together a delicious--and pretty good looking--dinner.

Jared inspecting his creation

 To get away from the turkey smell for a while, we explored a bit and enjoyed the last couple minutes of blue skies before the sun disappeared over the mountains.

And maybe the best holiday amendment was taking a dip in the hot-tub after dinner. The boys also took a quick dip in the lake too--it was a tad chilly (as I can attest to, having put my big toe in at least one centimeter).

Here are a couple other photos from the weekend:

We enjoyed poking around at on the rocks of the next door provincial park!

You can probably guess who that is on top of the cliff.

Elise and I breaking the wishbone!

Is it possible to fail in the wishbone game? It split flat down the middle! Guess we both got half a wish :)

Thanks to some wonderful friends for a great Thanksgiving!