Thanksgiving in the CLE

Rosa and I had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday with the Parma family in Cleveland. We drove up last Wednesday, eight hours of perfectly uneventful driving. Last year, it was a near blizzard in Cleveland on Thanksgiving. This year, it was near 70 degrees!! And there's still a few orange leaves clinging onto those last few branches. Gotta love the midwest.

We had the actual Thanksgiving meal at Monica's house. They deep fried the turkey! It was my first deep-fried turkey experience, and let me tell you that it's SO GOOOD! It looks exactly like you'd think it would - a turkey sitting in a big vat of very hot oil. It's just like dropping fries into oil at McDonalds. As soon as the turkey hits the oil, it immediately seals off the outside, so all the juices stay in the bird. Soooo delicious. And Rosa made her hit rolls (Mom's recipe). Delicious appetizers, yummy mashed potatoes and gravy, veggies, the works! We had a great time visiting with the family.

We got lots of family time in, fun and games, a double-date with Rosie's brother and his wife, and even some candy-making. The biggest hit of the weekend, though, was the newest addition to the Parma clan: Bria.


I've chronicled a bit about her before on the site, but let me just say that she is adorable. Six weeks old, and about as cute as they get. She's got many of her mom's features, but she's got her dad's tan skin tone and thick dark hair. Beautiful.

We woke up early Sunday, and drove back, covering the 8 hour drive in about 9 or 10 hours, thanks to the lovely ridiculous holiday traffic, and several episodes of rubbernecking. But we got back in time for Rosa to play piano during Relief Society and have me teach the Elders Quorum lesson at church. Phwew! We're exhausted, but overall, a fabulous weekend!

And now back to studying...