A Fargo (and frosty) Thanksgiving

 The Arness Girls (Jacky, me, Amy, LeAnn)

Fargo, Food, Family, (Football), and (snow)Flakes. That was our Thanksgiving this year.  While my parents and sister are on the East Coast and K's family is all in SoCal (or Vietnam), I really do feel lucky to have an extended MN/ND "family" with which to spend holidays (and who are always gracious about hosting). While I wish we could ALL live within 2 hours of one another to have big family get-togethers (it is holidays like these that make me envy people who marry people from their same hometowns or at least the same state and whose family all lives within a 2-hr radius because I feel and will probably always continue to feel "divided"), I am thankful to have had the week off and be close enough to see my relatives here.

 LeAnn (my dad's first cousin, formerly an "Arness") and her husband, Brad, hosted our family dinner at their new house (designed and built from scratch last year; it is LOVELY) in Fargo. Although a [small] MN storm was brewing which worried Grandma (and the high-in-harm-avoidance hubby), we did convince her to join us.

Marilyn (my great aunt) sweetly gave me a birthday present of some MN mugs and I got some Holly Yashi earrings (bought in Fargo, but from Arcata! A huge coincidence!) from Amy and the other "Arnesses."
 

This layered pumpkin cake was apparently also in my honor (Thanks, Amy!) although we already had TONS of yummy Thanksgiving desserts including my favorite, pecan pie.

 Marilyn, Jacky, me

My cousin Richard provided some "bear meat" (seriously; he shot it in Alaska) which tasted much like roast beef.

(Kelvin digs in)

We had a delicious spread including turkey, stuffing, (bear), yams, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, lefse (Norwegian potato flat bread; awesome with butter & sugar), and desserts galore.

 

us with Dyno, Heather, and Grandma

We left town fairly early due to this...

... Kelvin's first *real* snowfall. While the roads weren't too bad, we did almost hit a deer on the way back on Highway 75.  About 1.5 inches accumulated in Crookston.

And then it dropped to temps in the teens, continuing until the morning we left.

 

 Yikes! Among other things, I am thankful for a warm coat (and that I currently reside in a much warmer state)!