Thanksgiving Day and the Day After

This year I drove to Rochester to have dinner with Jerry and Janet, and Janet's family. We had a very nice time together with a delicious dinner. The day started out at 53 degrees, which is unseasonably warm for Minnesota this time of year. Traffic was heavy, but slowed down to 12 mph about half way there.

Surely, there has to be a crash up ahead, or else I'm going to be very late for dinner. After about 3 or 4 miles of this, there was the rolled over truck.

Thankfully, there appeared to be no other vehicle involved. After this point, traffic thinned out and moved at a good pace.

When I arrived, the food preparation was well on its way. Lynn and Janet had everything under control, so I visited with Keith and Deborah, and Deborah's daughter, Annika, and with Chad and Jerry.

Annika brought this beautiful pasta salad, garnished with a "turkey." What a sweet girl she is! Little Levi and Annika hit it off and he followed her everywhere! It was very cute.

L to R: Keith, Chad, Deborah, and Annika

After dinner, Keith helped Jerry with some sites on his computer.

Levi with Cassie and Chad

Keith and Deborah patiently worked with Hans to set me up on Deborah's I pad for "face-time" with  Rachel, Hans, William, Josiah and Annika. This was especially nice for me since I haven't seen Hans and his family since Easter. They are trying to convince me to buy an I pad. We'll see.

Levi loved playing peek a boo with Annika! It wasn't long after this that the sliding door had to be closed. The wind shifted from the south to the north and the temperature took a nose dive. (When I awoke this morning ((Saturday)), it was a mere 11 degrees! Good-bye, Autumn.)

* * * * *

For the first time in awhile, I stayed overnight at my brother and sister's home. I slept very well on the new bed in their guest room. In the morning, we had a leisurely breakfast and spent some time going through an album that Aunt Liz had put together for our family. In it were things such as a certificate of completion for a shorthand course my mother had taken, along with her high school graduation program and the wedding photo of her and dad. We also discovered papers Jerry had written while in college and letters he wrote to her while stationed in Japan and in Scotland. There were wedding invitations and graduation announcements of Janet, Keith, and Lynn and a high school announcement of Heidi's. When Pat first gave this album to me, I removed all of the items she had saved of mine and my kids. As always, we talked about how much we miss our dear Aunt Liz.

After a little lunch, Janet and I drove to the Rochester History Center of Olmsted County where we had reservations for a tour of the Mayowood Mansion. At the history museum, we saw various keepsakes of the early days of the Mayo Clinic.

A model of an early operating room at St. Marys Hospital. Notice the sisters in the observation gallery.

This is a model of an early hospital room. I'm so happy they had the foresight to save such things.

A wheelchair from years ago.

The Mayowood Mansion

This Christmas tour was fantastic! We learned that one of the two original Mayo brothers, Charles, built this mansion in 1911, hiring 30 farmers from the nearby area to build it. It was all decked out for Christmas but unfortunately, NO photos were allowed – not even without flash. To keep from temptation, I left my camera in the car. When the Mayo family moved out in 1965, they donated the mansion and all its furnishings, plus 10 acres of land surrounding it to the Olmsted County Historical Society.  Currently, the mansion and grounds are under renovation. You can look here if you are interested in seeing photos of the mansion. I really enjoyed taking this tour with Janet.