November 28, 2017: Christmas Decorations at the Dallas Arboretum
	October 8-26, 2017: Our Fall Trip to Florida
	Return to the Index for 2017

This year will be the second year in what appears to be a nascent "tradition" with us- celebrating my birthday and having Thanksgiving with everyone in San Antonio. As more of our friends have moved away, the crowd available for birthday celebrations in Dallas has diminished, as have potential invitees for Thanksgiving. So last year, we did both here in San Antonio, and it was very much like doing both with family. So this year, we are doing the same. Karl will do the turkey and the rest of us will do the side dishes. Fred and I will do the stuffing and green bean casserole.

It is fun to do it this way, but then it leaves me without one of the main benefits of doing a big turkey at my house- leftovers that I can freeze. So, my solution is to buy a turkey before Thanksgiving (when they are on sale) and put it in the freezer. Then I cook it for Christmas. This replaces my previous tradition, the Christmas ham, but ham doesn't freeze as well and there are fewer things I do with it anyway.

Getting to the Ruckman's House in San Antonio

You have probably seen an album page where we visit San Antonio, but in case you haven't, I want to show you the route to San Antonio from Dallas and where Prudence and Ron and Guy are located.

On the maps below, you can see the route to the Ruckmans' house. It is an easy matter to simply hop on I-35E from the Tollway in Dallas and take that highway all the way south through Austin to San Antonio. This 280-mile trip routinely takes about 4.5 hours. In San Antonio, we continue to follow I-35 into the city, eventually exiting onto San Pedro Avenue. We take that north about two miles, and either hang a left on Ashby and a right on Breeden or just a left on French to get to the Ruckmans' house on the northeast corner of Breeden and French.

In case you have not seen them, I have put below first an aerial view of the Ruckmans' house (it is the house on the corner and the garage/apartment building north of it where Guy lives) and a front view of the house (taken in 2010).

We left Dallas on the 22nd, and arrived in San Antonio in time to have dinner with everyone, and also go to the store to get what I will need to fix our side dishes. Since my birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year, we had no special birthday dinner or party, although Fred did get me a cake at H-E-B which we enjoyed on the day after Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Dinner

At Thanksgiving Dinner

Probably the best picture of our group at Thanksgiving was the one at left that I took with Prudence's phone. Guy was absent from the picture, and there are a few folks that you might not know. The gentleman in the nearground is a friend of Ron's, and the two guys on the right side of the table are also his friends from the Humidor.

I took some other candid pictures as we were laying everything out, and you can see them below:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

I enjoyed doing what I did last year, making some stuffing and some green bean casserole. Everyone seemed to like both dishes last year, and so I guess they will become a tradition. And Karl did a great job with the turkey. I was also able to get him to bring over all the juices from his turkey so that I could put together some gravy.

With Ron's friends in attendance, we had a really great meal, after which Ron and his guys adjourned to his man cave in the basement for some also traditional football.

My Birthday

My birthday was on Thanksgiving this year, so after our dinner I got some cards from everyone and a couple of small gifts- including this Young Turks T-shirt from Fred.

Over at Art Gallery Prudencia

I've mentioned earlier that Prudence is in the process of opening an art gallery over near Caparelli's restaurant on Main Street- about six blocks away. We have been helping her on our last few trips down here, and things are moving along towards a grand opening reception in two more weeks.

Thanksgiving evening, while Ron and some of his friends were watching football, Prudence, Nancy, Fred, and I walked over to the gallery so Prudence could show us how it was coming along. While we were there, we hung the first few pictures so Prudence could ask us our opinions on how they might go. Here are a few of the pictures we took on our trip over to the gallery that evening:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Things are certainly moving along, and we told Prudence that we would return a day or two before the opening to help her get everything ready. I will also be laying out her website and preparing to create it when her artwork all arrives and we can photograph it. There is a lot to do, but we are all looking forward to the opening.

Thanksgiving and my birthday were really great, and we ended up staying through to Sunday before heading home. We want to thank Ron and Prudence yet again for their incredible hospitality.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 28, 2017: Christmas Decorations at the Dallas Arboretum
	October 8-26, 2017: Our Fall Trip to Florida
	Return to the Index for 2017