Twenty-seven

That's how many people were at the family Thanksgiving celebration yesterday, including most of Jason's immediate family, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, parents and siblings of in-laws, miscellaneous dogs, etc. And this wasn't even a particularly well-attended year ... we were missing one aunt and all of her assorted kids and grandkids, which would have added another 10 or 12 to the guest list. And it's just Jason's mother's side of the family - the actual Woods clan is in another area of the country, and we'd have to rent out a church hall to fit all of them in, too, although I think we had enough food for them if they had come.

Luckily, Jason's family is used to these big gatherings, and his Aunt Pat's house is well-designed for entertaining large groups of people who may not all want to be in the same room. Plus, it was 73 degrees outside, so most of the kids and dogs were out running amok in the leaves, throwing rocks in the water off the dock, seeing who could get the best explosion by throwing rotten osage orange fruits against a tree, etc.

Liza sees this group of people about twice a year, and while I think she remembers them, she still requires at least an hour of warm-up time before she lets go and removes her face from where she's embedded it in my neck. But yesterday she was doing pretty good, eating a huge lunch ("Liza LOVES dumpins!" gotta work on the pronunciation on the noodles, dear) and running around with the kids for hours. When asked what her favorite part of the day was, she told us "Aunt Susan!" which translates as, I really loved it when Aunt Susan stood in one place and I ran around her in circles for 15 minutes straight until I collapsed from vertigo. Good times, good times.