Campfires

Thanksgiving in the Woods

I have a children’s book titled “Thanksgiving in the Woods.”

It is a true story about one family’s Thanksgiving tradition. Each year they make a special effort to go into the woods to eat their thanksgiving meal, with extended family and friends. The story tells they bring traditional Thanksgiving food, set up tables and chairs, load a truck full of hay for hay rides, bring guitars to make music around a bon fire, and other outdoor activities. I always thought it sounded like a lot of fun.

So, when our grandchildren were invited to attend a “Thanksgiving in the Woods” I, of course, latched on to the idea and signed us up.

We didn’t know what to expect. I knew it would not be like the book, but I wanted to experience what this event had to offer. We knew the weather in North Carolina has been unseasonably cold, so we planned to dress warmly. We knew that by 6:00 pm it is dark outside, but that added to the excitement. We knew we were to bring a dessert, and we knew the park (which was on an island) since we had hiked there before with the kids.

We didn’t know if there would be any program, a campfire, or what kind of meal to expect.

We used our iPhone flashlight to light our way. I wanted to retake this photo, but the kids said it turned out perfect.

We drove across the causeway to the island, parked in the lot, and walked a little ways up the unlit, paved path to the picnic shelter.

A large bon fire greeted us. The buffet table was set up in picnic shelter and we set down our contribution to the meal. The kids immediately started to run around as we stood by the campfire and had polite conversation with some folks.

The servers at the buffet ling. Fun plates, napkins and cups.

The meal was the real deal…a full array of Thanksgiving foods…stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach casserole, gravy, turkey, ham, cranberries and miscellaneous desserts including pumpkin pie, and a decorated theme cake.

Everyone went through the food line, including those serving the meal. Not until after everyone had finished eating did they open the dessert line. That was a nice touch.

Fun captions on this Thanksgiving-themed decorated cake.

A lot of work went into planning this event, and although the event was not at all like the book, we enjoyed being outside in the woods… we did not get cold…we ate tasty food (including smoked turkey!)…and we were thankful.

It was an enjoyable evening… at this “Thanksgiving in the Woods.”

Moonrise Twice

On Wednesday afternoon, we arrived at our beloved cabin we rent on Lake Superior, two days/nights after the full moon. I always love to see the full moon over Lake Superior but we do not plan our trips around it…however, a lot of times the dates do work out and we’ve seen the moon rise over the lake many times…I love it!

Since the full moon was only two nights ago we planned our campfire on the rocks to coincide with the moonrise. And…at precisely, 8:01 pm, as posted on the meteorological site predicting sunrises and sunsets, moonrise and moonsets, it, indeed, rose.

However, the unique thing about this evening’s moon rise was we saw it rise two times! It came over the horizon at 8:01 and was gorgeous, a huge orange ball…we saw it come up in its entirety.

However, there was a low cloud in the sky, on the horizon, and the moon went behind that cloud and we could not see it for a few minutes…then lo and behold, we saw it rise again over the cloud for a second moonrise, and this time the moon shone bright and white.

The moon over Lake Superior, September 22, 2021.

What a gift. What a blessing. What an amazing time to be sitting on the rocks on Lake Superior, in front of a campfire, watching the moonrise, twice!

We have a brown spot on our lawn these days. Burned by the fire pit we used the other night to have our backyard campfire (the grass grows back). Our son and daughter-in-love came to visit so we started the weekend off with a campfire in our back yard fire pit. We sat around and visited while the stars came out and the sky grew dark. It was a lovely evening. I love sitting around a campfire.

Our family has many memories doing just that. We did a lot of camping when our boys were young and had many campfires. We also have a campfire on the rocks near Lake Superior every year when we rent a cabin up there.

Many stories have been told around those campfires. When my husband wasn’t making one up about how S’mores got their name, for example, we would go around the circle and someone would start a story then pass it on and each person would add to the story line.

We even had winter campfires (and still do occasionally). We would go to the state park and build a fire, bring along hot chocolate and hot baked beans in thermos’ and roast hot dogs over the fire. Of course we’ve had our fair share of s’mores over the years too.

Now backyard fire pits are popular. Although we don’t use ours often it’s fun to have available to create more memories.