Thanksgiving - San Antonio - Nov 2005

Well, it's good to be "back home" so to speak. This is where Frank grew up and where most of his family live. Over the years we've come to town so many times that it's like our second home and it's now our domicile since we're using Frank's Mom's address for our permanent address.

We decided to stay at the Blazing Star RV Resort since it's only a few miles from Frank's Mom's house. It's the nicest park in town, but it's still an RV park where they pack 'em in like sardines. We actually got a pretty nice site -- one of the few back-ins that gave us a nice stand of small oaks to look at. The "Premium" site next to us never had an occupant, so we got a little more elbow room than if the park had been full.

After arriving in town, we spent the better part of 3 days researching RV parks in the area and driving around to check them out only to find that the one we were at was the best in town -- at least in terms of roominess. Still, we miss our elbow room and now, whenever we get to a public park where I'm not crazy about the camping layout, I'll look at this picture and remind myself what wall to wall concrete pads is like and I'll quit complaining.

Frank is from a large family (6 sisters and 1 brother) and most of them live here in San Antonio, so Thanksgiving (and most other holidays) typically warrant a huge gathering of folks. The immediate family consists of Frank's Mom, his siblings and their spouses, and around 15 or so nieces and nephews (and now their spouses and kids as they've gotten older.) It's not uncommon for the get-togethers to include extended relatives as well as friends of the family, so at times there can be upwards of 40 people assembled. In addition to our human relatives, the family has also acquired quite a collection of canine companions and now when we all gather, we usually have a dozen or so dogs included in the mix. It makes for a noisy and chaotic experience, but one that's filled with love and it's always amazing how it all comes together with everyone bringing and sharing food, at least a dozen conversations all going on above the din and somehow, there are usually enough seats for everyone.

This wasn't taken this year (darn it -- I forgot my camera), but it's a good example of the doggies that join our family gatherings. Can you spot all the dogs in this picture? Hint, one of them is a small puppy and kind of hard to see.