Thanksgiving in the Country

I don't know what people who don't have the great outdoors ingrained into them do on thanksgiving - wait I take that back. I know what they do. They play the Wii, drink a few beers, cokes and cider, catch up on happenings and sit around the living room until the food appears. At least, that is what my extended family does - cousins and aunts and such.

We normally go down south to have Thanksgiving with our extended family, but this year we weren't able to make it. We couldn't sit at home alone of course, so we planned a full day of fun over at our other families house - other family translated as our best friends down the road.

We knew it would be a fun day, but we didn't really know the extent of it, or what it would entail.

Bro - What more needs be said?

Bows - of course - who wouldn't have Thanksgiving without archery being involved?

The girls were totally interested in archery, but had little to no experience or practice. So, lessons commenced, along with general open-season on anything downrange stupid enough to get pegged by all involved.  

Demonstration fire

You can tell by her face that Jessie and that target must have had a disagreement sometime in the near past... 

She looks a tad happier - she must have settled part of the score with the target

Lisa apparently was on fine terms with the target, and on fine terms with the holes she put in it 

Eggnog Row

Oh Golly  -  I missed! 

During and around the archery was arranged a Pellet Gun competition - I didn't win, but I came close. The competition kinda fizzled out when we found out that the scope on the gun they were using was a tad off.

Matthew snipin'. He had the highest score at the end 

Raspberry Tea and a good seat to watch from 

Yours Truly, with me own shooter

Bro at bat.   Er .... gun. 

Lisa gone lefty

Jess was the bravest and free-handed a few shots

After the shooting of various weaponry for several hours, an impromptu photo shoot cropped up. Us and the girls had never had a really good shot of us all together.

And if any of you have been around on one of our photo shoots, you know that is no easy or quick matter.
Lots of shooting ensued, before and after the desired shot was taken.

Sister Love

Bro : Maybe I should have my hat this way -
Me: I don't know him.....

Photo bomber...

Had to throw this one in - I have seen very few good shots of people with Compound bows, so I am always looking for some, or trying to take them and be in them.
Needless to say, I love this one. 

The Guardians

And this was the reason for the entire shoot - One good shot of all of us together -
We call them 'the girls', they call us 'the boys'
Together, more than friends  -  Family.  

So, we eventually had to close shop and stow away the gear for animals chores, and of course, for dinner.

And when it came to dinner, we did things a tad differently than most rednecks.

I insisted on decking out a touch for Thanksgiving, and everybody else decided to follow suit. We put on our Sunday best, put out the best China and Silver, and had a Thanksgiving dinner in style.

But, despite the fancy clothes and fancy fixin's, it was still a redneck dinner. 

Someone commented halfway through the main meal that we were sitting around a gorgeously decked out table, all in our Sunday best, eating with Silver off of China, discussing the best way to polish off the neighborhood coyotes - hardly becoming of the high-class look we were sporting. 

You can deck out a Redneck, but he's still a redneck. : ) 

So, all in all, I have to say I think it was the best Thanksgiving I have had. Thank God for good times, good food, good friends, and loads of all of them.   

Here's to loads more.