Buildng Ginger Bread Houses - Nov. 2008

On the Sat. morning after Thanksgiving with the Shorts we went to the Malvern Bible Chapel to help prepare ginger bread houses for an outreach activity that they were planning for the next week end. We had lots of fun working together with the other believers and visiting at the same time.

The gal in the dark blue in the top picture is Laura Short.

Second picture is Merve, Nancy & Ziggy

Third picture the gal in white is Carla, the "contractor" "supervisor" or the moving force behind the project.

The precision builder in the striped shirt is my dear Helmut.

In the bottom picture you have Andrew, Audrey, Barbie and the lady in red -whose name I don't remember.

On the Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving Andrew, Barbie, Ruth, Helmut and I took a day trip to Lancaster County, PA. First stop was a photo op at Zimmerman's store. We didn't go in so I'm not sure if it was a general store or a little grocery store. Then we continued on to the Kitchen Kettle "Mall" which is a Mennonite/Amish shopping area. Helmut had forgotten his cap so that was the first thing we had to purchase. Mostly we walked around looking at the various wares but bought very little. We were in a place that sold hand made furniture and wooden items - it was very interesting. I found the quilt shop very nice to look at but the beautiful hand made quilts were very high priced. No doubt they require many hours of labor.

I had a baked ham sandwich for my lunch and the rest of the family waited until later in the afternoon to eat.

U. S. Thanksgiving 2008

On Nov. 25Th. in the evening we left Winnipeg for the long drive to Exton, PA where our future daughter-in-law's family live. After about 28 hours of driving and riding with tired minds and bottoms we finally arrived near midnight on the 26Th.

The Shorts welcomed us and after a brief time of getting acquainted we all turned in for the night. The long ride had not been very kind to my legs so I had many cramps during the night and didn't sleep very much.

We had a leisurely morning with a late breakfast. Laura and Will had the dinner preparations in hand and their three girls helped a lot. (one of their daughters was away visiting her boy friend in Florida) There were so many items to be cooked in the oven that they had borrowed space in the neighbor's oven so they were running back and forth.

Top picture: Andrew, Barbie, Susanna with the dog Paris, Mom-Laura, Jackie and Jean.
Second picture: Dad-Will, cleaning the patio of leaves.
Third picture: Most of the Short Klan. Will has seven siblings, four of them not in the picture - the youngest sister and her family came later and didn't eat with us. One of the adult men in this picture is a nephew. Laura's Father is also at the table.
Bottom picture: Two "visitors" that passed through the back yard while we were at dinner.

Thanksgiving with the Shorts is like this every year they say but it is their main family get together of the year.

Andrew, Barbie & Ruth went to a football game in the evening while Will, Laura, Helmut & I had a good visit.