Thanksgiving was approaching, but before the festivities began, I met with Ronnie Sircar of ORFE and Larry Danson of English.

Finally it was Thursday and so food was starting to assemble be emptied and be cooked as the Macy's parade the finished cake the pain au chocolat from Wegman's and the clock marked the time before I headed to Chip's house where he was rigged up to fry our turkey as we drank beer and watched him smoke his cigar.

Back at home, Liz Dahlen arrived and Alex posed with Jane as Suzanne and Ben joined us and we decided to open the first bottle of wine because the table was set and appetizers and squash soup were being served before we came to the table and saw the many (15 or more) dishes that would make up our meal (for this day and the ones to follow) starting with pumpkin tortellini the onion dish stuffing broccolli the fried turkey artichokes cranberry the bean dish wasabi mashed potatoes and carrots by Jane so that the table looked like this before the stuffing vegetables and salad were added to the lights and the desserts stood guard as I admired the table and Ben brought out the sweet potatoes in orange shells as more wine was served to accompany my plate of goodies as people on both sides of the table dug in. and I took this self portrait at the head of the table.

The day after Thanksgiving, we drove down to the Trenton train station to pick up Dick, Fran, Jackson and Emma who came to visit for a few days. We began with lunch where Jack was in the dark but Emma Ben and Jane were visible and Emma and Ben made Jack visible before we left the backlit living room for a walk to the campus where we took pictures in the circle with points

and then on the tigers in front of Nassau Hall

in front of the door at Pyne and at the sculpture in front of the library

before we headed off to see more tigers for posing

and visited Halo Pub for some ice cream before coming home to construct and play with the remote control cars that Ben assembled for them.

Dick and Jack and Jane wondered if we should watch Toy Story as Sarah me and Emma preferred to think about food as Sarah Jane and Ben Jack Dick me and Ben settled in to dinner.

The next day began with the birth announcement candy bar after which Jane posed with the twins since she was heading off for the day

and Ben and Sarah were part of our convention of catalogs as Jane packed her bag and Jack and Emma ate their popsicles

which amused Ben before the excursions.

Once back, there was lunch and the proverbial mirror pictures as Dick and Fran gathered possession and I took pictures of Emma upside down and from above with similar pictures of Suzanne and my self portrait and Sarah before we began to gather the twins with Sarah and then with Sarah and Ben and finally with a family picture with the 4 of us (Jane having left by now).

After dropping them off at the train station 3 of the Straus arrived to take Ben bowling.