Happy Turkey Day!

This was our first Thanksgiving since moving to Ohio. Our friends Tony and Nicky (I work with Tony) invited us over to their house so that we wouldn't just be by ourselves at home.

We got there a little bit early so we drove around in their "Allotment" (which is Ohio's fancy name for Housing Developments) and looked at some of the houses that were for sale. We were a little shocked by the prices. They ranged from $499,000 up to one that was $599,000!!! In OHIO!!!! I will have to say that in California, the same house would probably be over a million, but still, I didn't know that there were actually houses here that cost that much. Wow!

After driving around for a bit to burn some time, we made our way over to their house. As we got out, it was starting to snow just a little bit. You could see it slightly if you looked at something dark, but it would melt as soon as it hit something. We went inside and met Nicky's Mom, Wanda. They had all the food pretty much ready and were just putting things on the plates.

A few minutes later, their friends Richard and Terry arrived. With everyone there, we sat down to eat. Everything was DELICIOUS!!!! Of course, being Thanksgiving, we all ate WAAAY too much and they practically had to roll us out to the car when we were leaving. :-)

Juli in the kitchen.

Tony and Nicky's dog, Buster. He's half German Shepard, half Doberman.

This is a shot of half of their backyard. It's kinda snowing, but you can't really see it in this shot.

The Bird. It's actually a full bird, and the breast of another one on the back.

(From left to right) Tony, Richard, Juli, Nicky, Chris, Terry, Wanda (Nicky's Mom)

First SNOW!!!!

It's been getting pretty cold over the past few weeks and a couple of times as it was raining, there would be what the locals here call "freezing rain" which was a little bit like hail, but only lasted for a minute or two. For the most part it was still regular old rain.

But not today!!!

This morning when I went outside to go to work there was finally some real snow on the ground!! There wasn't a lot, just a light dusting, but it was still really cool to finally get our first snowfall since moving here.

Within a few hours of taking this picture it had all melted and you wouldn't know that it had ever been there.

I hope it snows some more soon.

View from my office window at work this morning

Delores with her first Ohio snow

Finally walked to the lake

Well, after living here for more than 3 months, we finally decided to hike through the trees, weeds, and bushes behind our house to check out the lake that's behind it. With the weather getting cold (mid 30's to low 40's) most of the leaves have fallen off the trees and bushes so it made it a little easier to get through. Plus we didn't want to get poison ivy again. Well... I didn't want to get it again.

Once we came out the other side, we could finally see the lake. It wasn't really as big as we were expecting it to be, but it was still pretty neat. Way on the other side there was a house with a big backyard that backed right down to the lake. I bet that cost a little bit.

Left side of the lake

Right side of the lake

Juli by the lake