grass stains: Thanksgiving in North Carolina, part 2

On Friday morning, most of the women got up early and drove to the Carolina Craftsmen crafts show in Greensboro, and Grayson took our kids over to Matt and Patrice's house to hang out over there while we were gone.

It's pretty easy for the kids to get along together. They're either tearing after each other in the yard or lounging around on the couch playing on their iPods.

And if they're lucky, Baby G wants to get in a snuggle or two. (Patrice is great about using a cute heart to obscure his face until the adoption is final, but I can't do that in iPhoto and I don't have time for Photoshop. Sorry, G!)

I love how the boys just laze around with no regard to personal space. It won't be long before it "matters."

I'm so enjoying it while it doesn't. And so is Baby G.

Friday night, we got together with the whole H clan -- the entire group that gathers at the beach every summer -- for a tour of the Christmas lights at Tanglewood, a huge park on the outskirts of Winston-Salem. At 8:00 we all piled in a covered wagon with blankets, hats and gloves and as much combined body heat as we could muster, and we took off through the park.

Even our contingent from New York was bundled up -- it was in the low 30s, so it's possible Kim was using 19 blankets.

I'm just now noticing that our Floridian, Tiffany, HAD ON TWO SCARVES.

At this point I'm really wishing I'd given my phone to one of them and had them take a picture of me. I was wearing a denim jacket over a short-sleeved T-shirt.

We hadn't been gone long when the kids started up a rousing -- and by rousing I mean LOUD -- round of Christmas carols that lasted for about 30 minutes.

Perhaps that was part of their strategy for generating heat.

I don't know, but they kept it up for a long time. I was impressed that they knew the words to that many Christmas songs.

I wasn't sure if Amelia would really be into the lights, but she loved them. She did NOT love blankets or her jacket. Every time we tried to cover her up with a blanket, she shoved it away.

What could I say? I didn't want one, either. I finally decided that if she wanted one, she'd ask for one. Baby G got so warm and comfortable that he finally dropped off to sleep. It was adorable.

I think he missed the whole second half of the hayride, but no matter. He was probably more comfortable than any of the rest of us.

From Tanglewood, we drove over to Krispy Kreme -- you know that Winston-Salem is home to Krispy-Kreme, right? Like, the LITERAL HOME of Krispy-Kreme. So we went there.

Our group of 33 kind of filled the place up -- we're rude like that -- so when a few elderly people came in, they had no place to sit. Grayson offered them half of our table, which they shared with me and Amelia. THEY WERE PLEASED AS PUNCH BY THIS TURN OF EVENTS.

One of the women decided to stick a doughnut hole on a coffee stirrer (with her bare hands, by the way, but since Amelia eats food off the floor all the time, I let it slide) for Amelia.

This is known as a Seal. Of. Approval.

Ohhh, the old people were just smitten down to their cores with Amelia. They talked and talked and talked to her. Didn't matter that they couldn't really understand her responses and that I had to translate as if I were a professional interpreter. Nope, no matter at all. This might well have been the highlight of their month, Internet.

They were just darling, and Amelia and I had fun chatting with them, really. Also of note, they polished off a dozen doughnuts, three cups of coffee and half a dozen doughnut holes (with a little help from Amelia) in about 25 minutes.