Bullseye for Thanksgiving

A dartboard hangs in our attic where it has since we mounted it upon bringing it from Big Sky a year and a half ago in our final move.  Since then, it hasn't received nearly as much use as it did when it hung in our garage in Montana.

On Thanksgiving and the following evenings, it became the fun focus for games of 501.

Players took turns throwing three darts, and whatever points we scored were subtracted from 501 on our individual scores by our dedicated scorekeeper Rabea.

Someone logically asked if the game ends when someone passes 501.

Not knowing the rules myself, I nonetheless chimed in to say that the winner had to hit zero exactly.  Whether that is true or not, I knew that should make it a game where everyone would have a chance at winning, because hitting an exact number at the end would be time consuming.

In the first game, which spanned an hour or so, Amy needed 42 to go out, trimming that to 17 on two throws, she hit single 17 on third throw of her turn!  On her first try!  We were all amazed! 

The next night, Amy led most of the way again.

 

"If she wins again, she'll be insufferable," joked her husband Lukas.

Getting near the end, I counted down to 5, Lukas to 6 and Amy to 7.  Two rounds later, Lukas went to 2 and the rest of the pack was closing in with strong finishes.

It was literally anybody's game by the end, but Lukas hit 2, and no one going after him with a chance to tie could hit zero by exact count.

So, if that is not the actual rule, it nonetheless made for an interesting game and the equivalent of a photo finish, for a rather leisurely game.

It's somewhat odd that Lukas's sister Rabea is a medical doctor, because she writes quite neatly.

We didn't spend all of our time playing darts.

There were other games, like Charades and a Spy secret code guessing game.

The extended festivities and meals shifted between our home and that of Gina, Laszlo and Emma, where two jigsaw puzzles were assembled one afternoon, along with other activities.

That's also where we held one of our family's big Thanksgiving week events: making Grandma Mary's Fruit Cake.

As usual, Gina spared no expense buying all of the ingredients, including a twist double pecans (no walnuts) this time, and then mixing the dry ingredients together the week before the fruit cake cooking and assembly began for the rest of our crew.  Her prep works makes our steps simpler and more fun.

Amy stirred the pot of prepped ingredients into lots of butter and marshmallows.

Rabea helped Amy scoop out giant globs of hot fruit cake onto wax paper.  The team of elves (Laszlo, Emma, Gina, Rabea, Julie and me) proceeded to roll and shape them before taping them up and putting them in a refrigerator tray to chill.

We returned two days later to remove the original wax paper (Lukas and Rabea mainly), cut the mini-fruit cake rolls into slices (Emma, Laszlo and me) like candy and then fold them into festive wax paper (Amy and Gina).  

Then they go to the next station to be packaged in Christmas wrapping paper by Julie, Ri

a, Amy and me.

With a smaller batch this year, it didn't feel quite so overwhelming as it does sometimes.  We often wonder how my mother did it alone.

After the final fruit cake wrap, Gina, Laszlo and Emma boxed their fall decorations and broke out their Christmas tree, tinsel, ornaments, mistletoe, stockings, winter displays and more. 

We pitched in to hang ornaments on their tree, setting the stage for Christmas in Merion Station.

This being the most renowned food holiday of the year, there were ample great meals.

Amy and Rabea arrived on Tuesday afternoon.  I'd pre-made my mom's recipe for tuna salad, which I know Amy loves and can now eat guilt free having added fish and eggs to what had formerly been a pure vegan diet.  Julie made delicious homemade chicken soup (basically chicken and dumplings, sans dumplings to cut carbs), a great comfort food.  Amy made stir-fried tofu veggies and rice.

The next evening, Gina, Laszlo and Emma hosted a whimsical dinner, featuring gourmet items she'd purchased on a trip with her friend Rachel when they sought shelter from the rain in a quirky shop.  

Appetizers were highlighted by fig sausage (yes, figs instead of meat).  Four unusually shaped pastas, including one that was lemony, could be topped with pumpkin sauce, cranberry sauce meatballs or traditional marinara.  I also enjoyed the salad with chunks of chicken breast that could be added.

We ended up staying later than anticipated, but we had no trouble waking up the next morning.

Gina brought over Montreal-style bagels, along with several spreads, and lots of fresh berries to our house.  We added some muffins to the buffet.  We had those items along with assorted other breakfast foods the next two mornings, too.

We're grateful to have hosted a full house for the main feast.

From Julie taking the picture around the table clockwise are Szilard, Laszlo, Gina, Emma, Ria, Rabea, Amy, Lukas, Silke, Winfried and me.

Thanksgiving dinner was centered by a succulent turkey, which was basted and baked to perfection, plus plenty of tasty side dishes. 

At the risk of leaving something out, let me say everything was delicious, including Ria's cranberry sauce, Julie's stuffing, Gina's mashed potatoes, Silke's green beans and Julie's sweet peas.  I just used the wives' names, but the husbands all lent a hand to those dishes.  

Amy did not eat any turkey, instead working with Lukas to make savory mushrooms in a red wine reduction sauce as her main course, which she shared with others.

Most of us enjoyed that 18-pound turkey.  Believe it or not, between Thanksgiving and leftovers the next day, we managed to eat the entire turkey, ten pounds of mashed potatoes and all of the side dishes except a little gravy and vegan stuffing.  However, that is not what we ate exclusively on Friday.

On Friday, Gina also made her oatmeal and blueberry baked dish for what turned out to be more of a mid-afternoon "lunner" than the originally planned brunch.

Silke, Winfried, Rabea, Lukas, Gina, Emma and Ria had taken the train into Philadelphia to visit the Barnes Foundation Museum in the morning.  Szilard was going to go but had a change of heart, and Laszlo stayed home.

Amy, Julie and I also opted out of the field trip, staying in Ardmore.

Julie used that time to convert our home's decorations from fall to Christmas while Amy and I worked on our computers.  

In the evening, we would enjoy the final leftovers at the newly winterized dining table.

But before that, Emma had convinced Gina and Amy to join her by decorating their own faces like savage Picts from the distant past of Scotland.

Actually, the blue paint was a beauty mask product to draw out excess oils or something.  They had fun putting it on and then just acting like nothing was different.

In any case, we didn't fight the Roman Legion and Brits to work off some of those excess calories.

Instead, we took several walks around our neighborhoods, both in daylight and after dark.

I took a lap around the block jogging with Amy and Rabea one cold morning.

They kept running after I went back inside.

On a couple of evenings, I brought out my guitar to play a few --- probably too many --- songs.  Silke spoke about days of her youth sitting around a campfire when someone like me would bring a guitar and have a bit of a sing-along. What I lack in talent, I try to make up for by knowing a lot of songs from my childhood to college years.  Silke sometimes sang along, finding lyrics on her phone.

Before bed each night, we watched TV together.  Amy and Lukas have been watching reruns of Frasier at their home.  Lukas, Rabea, Silke and Winfried --- who all immigrated from Germany in 1995 --- and Amy were surprised that Frasier had been spun off from the older show called Cheers.

With that revelation, we watched the first few episodes of Cheers season 3, when Frasier Crane was introduced for the first time to television audiences.

Writing this post, I realized I failed to mention previously visiting Princeton in my fall or summer blog posts.  I didn't bring my phone that day and so had no photo cue to remind me to include it.  I did a Gmail search to find correspondence with old school friends where I mentioned "Princeton" to know when we went.  I asked Julie if she had photos, and fortunately she took one on that sunny day.

Princeton University, September 14, 2025

Anyway, that's a long way of getting the point that at Princeton, we talked about watching Romancing the Stone during Thanksgiving week.  At one point, Gina was planning for themed snacks for a mini-movie festival of the two "Joan Wilder" adventure movies plus the 21st Century version of the genre, Argyle, on our living room big screen TV.

As it turned out, Gina came by on Saturday morning after dropping Emma off at skating.  We had just enough time to enjoy Romancing the Stone before Amy and Lukas would head home.

Okay, perhaps I metaphorically grabbed them by the ankles to stop them from heading home to Jersey City earlier when Winfried, Silke and Rabea made their departure at 9:30 AM for their much longer six-hour trek back to New Lebanon, NY.

I haven't seen Romancing the Stone in decades, and it seemed to develop somewhat slower than I remembered it, but we all agreed it is still a wonderful movie. 

As for our Thanksgiving gathering, I think we all enjoyed our time together.

Laszlo's mother Ria called it the best Thanksgiving ever.

Thanks to everyone who contributed their photos to supplement those taken by Julie and me.