My weekend in pictures 11/26/2011-11/28/2011

Oh buddy, what a good weekend!  I have so much to share with all of you!  

 This little gem is the only picture from Thanksgiving that didn't find it's way to the blog post about Thanksgiving.  I must have overlooked it, but I wanted to post it here.  Grandma and I were putting the meringue on our pies and it was just a perfect moment.  She later 'ruined' my butterscotch pie.  (It was not ruined, but amazing.)

 Lindsey's in Atlanta!  I know she's having a good time, and I want to put a little pressure on her to write us an amazing post all about it sometime soon!  For those of you who don't know she's a delegate to National 4-H Congress in Atlanta.  I'm a proud mother-brother!

 Black Friday, Black Friday...

What do you get when you combine a Tristen and I and all of the other Black Friday shoppers?  Mix in some sleep deprevation and some really good buys?  Insanity.  A lot of you have already heard the stories from our festivities, but no one has seen the pictures!  The above is a sandpaper filing organizer for the (very organized, probably homosexual) Bob Villa out there.

 This is the only long line we stood in, and it was for Tractor Supply!  T needed 3 things from Sears and I wanted a coat from JCPenney's, and we had everything we came for (all 4 items!) and walked out of Penney's at 4:08am.  It was insane! 

 We bought Melissa some new cookware and had it wrapped in a black trashbag under the tiniest Christmas tree ever for when she woke up.  We left and did all of our shopping before the sun even came up! 

 Tristen bought a 255 piece tool set and I helped him put all of the pieces into their appropriate slots.  It was tedious work, and he loved it.  Melissa on the other hand, was no help at all. 

 I want this.  It's $20 at Sams.  I will not, however, use it for fruit and cheese.  I'm thinking... cupcakes!  We have several holiday parties coming up and I think this would be perfect for a crowded table.

 This one is out of order, but T and I are assembling (some assembly required on a TOOL KIT) as Mel sleepily took our picture. 

 It's hard to document with a picture the amount of time I actually spend studying over the weekend.  This weekend I made flashcards for my upcoming English exam.  Here you can see some Girl Scout cookies (Brenda!) and my quilt from Grandma (a little) as well as my computer and the note cards.  I'm so studious!

 I went to Grandma's for leftovers on Friday evening and Jarred, Bethany, Grandma, Grandpa and myself all watched the horse races.  Haha.  I took this one because Grandpa was using his (ever versatile) pocket knife to clean under his fingernails.

 Saturday I just needed to get out of the house so Mom and I had a little adventure.  Applebees!

 The question is... how does a Lightning Rod break?!

 You know how life sometimes puts these people in your path just to make you stop and think "Woah, there are some really great people in this big old world"?  Well Kelley and Alan Blankenship are 2 of those people.  I loved running into them at WalMart, and catching up with them was fantastic. 

 We used a flashlight so this picture would turn out.  Haha.

 Joy, Darlene, Emmarie, Burt, John, Delbert

(That's my Grandma and her living siblings.)

 We had a Rigsby Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt Emmarie's.  More food, more family, more desserts!

 Well, Becky... you kind of made the blog!

 This is good!

 Doing what I do... standing around waiting for someone from the over 70 crowd to yell "Logan, can you bring me a..."

 My Aunt Aleta.  This woman can cook!

 On our way back to Columbus Mom and I had a shopping adventure in Circleville WalMart and had Roosters for dinner.  I love that she labeled our to-go containers "Mine" and "Yours"

I took a nod from the Blankenships and bought a huge thing of chicken breast and broke it down into small zip-loc baggies.  Single servings!

It's been a long weekend and I'm a tired panda.  Thanks for reading along with me!

Logan

My Thanksgiving in pictures (11.24.2011)

"Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion.
Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception.
Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude.
Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road."
John Henry Jowett

 Thanksgiving!   There are a lot of pictures here, and not all of them are in chronological order.  I had an amazing time helping my wonderful Grandmother cook Thanksgiving dinner!  She showed me a lot of little hints and tips on how she does things in the kitchen, and I really enjoyed spending that quality time with her.  Maybe sometime within the next few years she'll be able to let go of it all and just let me do all of the cooking!  I would outsource things to people (Robin!) to take some of the pressure off.  I'd love to invite you to take a look into a Carter Family Thanksgiving!

 Logan, Grandpa, Grandma, Zachary, Lindsey, Tristen, Melissa, Brady, Tracy, Robin, Terry, Bethany, and Jarred.  The whole family together in under the same roof!  The story behind this picture is hilarious because we used the camera's self timer, but also had to prop it up on the Bible to fit everyone in.  I was the cameraman and the first attempt I forgot to hit the button, so we all just stood there smiling for 30 seconds.  Don't we all look sharp, though? 

 Grandma starts preparing a few days before the day of and does a lot of the shopping a week or so before.  It's a really big job!  I snapped this picture just because I love the collection of things we can see here: a cookbook, car keys, Grandma's purse, the table where she sits to make her lists.  I think it's beautiful.

 I washed so many dishes over the course of preparing this feast!  It seemed like I washed the same things over and over again.  Maybe next time we'll hire a full time dishwasher?

 I had a really rough time learning how to shape the bread dough into balls, and Grandma finally explained the process in simple terms.  These rolls are truly a labor of love, until you've made them you have no idea how much work goes into each one. 

 See those little drops there?  Well, those happen when the pie starts to weep.  I think they're simply beautiful and Grandma hates them.  I think that this is a good analogy to represent how different we are... I'm the type of person who celebrates the imperfections. 

 "They've got to have room to rise and double!" (I kept making my dough balls too big.)

 They're so photogenic when they first come out of the oven and are covered in butter. 

 Beautiful.

 Zachary stopped over to lend a hand and he peeled 2 sweet potatoes.  Woo!

 Everyone was all scrunched together because they didn't think we'd all fit in the frame.  Well I had to zoom in on the picture you saw at the beginning of this post. 

 This couch gets used once a year.  Always by Zach.

 Mel made her famous cheesy potatoes and pineapple (pumpkin!) bars. 

 Maybe I can photoshop Grandma's eyes open?

 In this one too?

 Yahtzee!  (Kind of.)

 Oh, Brady.  He looks good with long hair.  I keep trying to tell him that if he cut it and got it shaped it would grow in a lot better.  I used to do the angsty teenager thing!

 Blog readers please meet the human garbage disposal.

 Well, Jarred ruined this one. 

 Better!

 My Shmommy!  She made a killer roast.

 I just love the little gap between the pie filling and the meringue.

 Mel's pumpkin bars.

 Lucky!  (You're lucky if you get a piece.)

 Apple cake.  Grandma and I were on the fence about this until I finally talked her into it.  She had all of the ingredients and apples that we're soon to go bad, so we went for it.  The batter is so dense and chunky that it's next to impossible to stir.  While it was baking we searched for a recipe for a brown sugar glaze.  Jeanie Pruit's cookbook had one in it that called for Oleo.  I had never heard of Oleo, and Grandma thought it was hilarious.  For those of you who don't know, Oleo is apparently what the "old timers" call margarine.  Who knew?

 The last piece of butterscotch pie!

 Lucky, Pumpkin bars, lemon meringue pie, apple cake, pumpkin pie, butterscotch pie, cheesecake.

 Brussel sprouts.  (Yuck.)

 Thank you for your sacrifice, Tom.

 I love this one!

 All of the Grandkids.

We started our black Friday strategies...

 More about Black Friday in my next post!

 Oh hey, I'm tall.

 This is the only thing my Grandmother remembers standing in line for on Black Friday.  It's a Teddy Rucksbin bear.  My Mom had this one as a kid and I had one as a kid.  I actually still have it. 

 After all was said and done Mel, Tristen and I started to leave and there was some commotion at the neighbors.  To make a long story short, a (almost definietly) drunk woman got stuck in my Aunt Cindy's driveway and we kind of congregated to watch the action.  I cut Mel out of this picture but my arms are only so long!

I could have written a lot more, but sometimes my words and pictures don't really do an event as special as this any justice.  I suppose you just had to be there, in the midst of it all to understand how special it was.  On Thanksgiving day and everyday, a guy like me should count his blessings and remember how loved he is by so many amazing people.

Thanks for reading!
Logan