Thursday, 23 November 2006:

In the morning, my sister Lisa arrived with husband Joe and nephew Joey. My Dad and his wife Pat were already at my brother Mike's house, so it started to get a little crowded. Joey got out a bunch of Legos, but his attention kept wandering back and forth from those to the TV - we had a Thanksgiving Day football game on, I can't remember which one.

I had been getting pretty restless, irritable, and discontented, so I went to a meeting at the beach, after which I actually went down to the beach. Like Holmes Beach in Bradenton, the beach was deserted, with no hominids at all, just a few lonely seabirds looking around futilely for something to eat. I turned around to leave the beach and got this pic of the Lifesaving Corps building. When I showed her this picture later, Pat recalled that she had dated a bunch of fellows from there, albeit some time ago.

Later in the afternoon I headed over to Kevin's. I took a bunch of pics there:

• When I arrived, my sister-in-law Debbie and niece Laura were in the kitchen, working hard on dinner.

• Niece Erica made this fantastic shrimp cocktail dip.

• Here's Laura with her beau Steve.

• Steve deep-fat fried a turkey! Here's Kevin and Steve lowering the bird into 450 °F oil.

• And here is a 17.5 MB Quicktime movie of the bird sizzling away in the pot.

• The lure of frying turkey was too much to resist, at least for us men-folk. Uncle Herb, brother Mike, and nephew-in-law Nordell were amongst the transfixed.

• After dinner, we all got together for a group photo op. We decided to start with the head of the familial tree, adding one generation at a time to successive pics. So here we go:

1. Here's GenOne, Dad and wife Pat.

2. Next come the four Saffer siblings. From left to right, and coincidentally from youngest to eldest, are Lisa, Kevin, Mike, and Rex.

3. Now we add all the nieces and nephews with Saffer blood in 'em, including Erica's boy Rivers. Back row: Lisa, Laura, Kevin, & Mike. Middle row: Erica, Dad, & Rex. Front row: Rivers & Joey.

4. Finally, here's the whole gang, including all spouses and progeny. Back row: Nordell & Rivers. Middle row: Rex, Joe, Joey, Steve, Laura, Kevin, & Mike. Front row: Lisa, Pat, Dad, Erica, & Debbie.

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