Taaaa Daaaaa!

Just in case the magicians (or "illuuuuusionists") were feeling left out of the whole vote-someone-off-the-island reality show craze, NBC just wrapped up a 5-week show called Phenomenon, a search for the next hottest magician. Chris watched a couple of episodes, and it unveiled some need in him to perform his own card tricks, which then sparked some new found interest in ChellBell to do the same. Honestly, if I'm asked to pick-a-card-any-card-now-put-it-back-in-the-deck one more time, I may just saw myself in half. And, unlike the TV contestants, 9 times out of 10, my sweet family members can't find my original card, and then we have to dissect the trick and what went wrong, while being asked every twenty seconds, "Are you SURE you didn't have the 6 of clubs???" as if I just forgot what my card was and that is why the trick failed... Seriously, there were some pretty cool tricks on the show -- and it's a whole lot bigger than just pulling rabbits out of hats -- and the good magicians were always able to magically make the impossible and unexpected happen.

Which leads me to my debrief of our Thanksgiving holiday in the little cabin in the woods of Oklahoma. Our very own Phenomenon, where the unexpected happened -- we had a fantastic time!

I have to admit that the trip did not start off on the greatest note. We packed our car to the hilt -- one child, two dogs, a crate, 2 suitcases of clothes, enough food for an army, an X-box, and a couple of bad attitudes. 17 miles into the trip, the little dog had passed gas three times (and, oh, it's worse that you can imagine), and I realized that we had left a whole load of clothes in the dryer which should have been packed. We were tempted to just stop at my sister's house and invite ourselves for the holiday, but we decided to press on... Finally, with both dogs asleep, the trek became much more bearable, and we even sang a little Oooook-lahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plain as we crossed the border, leaving our home state of Texas and heading toward Lake Eufaula.

The cabin ended up to be more than adequate and housed all 11 adults, 6 kids, and 5 dogs well. We played dominoes and speed scrabble (say hello to the new speed scrabble champ, by the way!). We ran around outside with all those dogs (although the little dog decided to pick a snarling fight with every dog bigger than himself, which was not well received by the dogs or their owners, and he found himself in the crate much of the time). Aunt Nicky introduced us to Marshmallow Wars (and then the dogs introduced us to ate-too-many-marshmallows-vomit afterwards). We had a great round of X-box karaoke. We had a campfire. We ate more food than we'll admit. Aunt Kim kept us in stitches the whole time. And let's not forget the family Turkey Trot (which ranged from a 1-mile to 3-mile fun run depending on who you ask) complete with medals and t-shirts.

So initially we weren't that excited about packing up, being away from home, dealing with dogs, sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, cooking in a cabin kitchen... But our Thanksgiving phenomenon goes to show that regardless of where you are, if you are with the ones you love, you will have a great time! I would even venture to say that this may have been our best Thanksgiving yet, bad card tricks and all.