A Farmhouse Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving weekend with my family, getting home late last night. Matt and I arrived at the Spokane airport on Thursday morning, where Mom and Lisia picked us up for the 20-minute drive back to Tighe and Lisia's beautiful new (old) house.

Built in 1889 (and renovated/added onto a couple times since), theirs is the oldest house still standing in Medical Lake, WA, population 4,000. Their big bright kitchen/dining room was the perfect place for a Thanksgiving dinner that afternoon.  Sadly, Lisia's parents weren't able to join us, as planned. We still managed to have a good time, and made some last-minute changes to the menu to make up for what they were planning to bring.

What I wouldn't give for a kitchen like this....

The Thanksgiving table.

Cranberry-orange relish

Garlic-tarragon-lemon potatoes. The potatoes and garlic were grown by Tighe, and the tarragon came from Mom and Dad's.

Alla would like some turkey, too, please. 

On Friday morning, most of us headed outside to do some outdoor projects.

The someday chicken coop. I tried to convince Tighe that they should get chicks this next spring, but he wants to focus on the house renovations first.

Dad and Tighe transplanted a couple of young cherry trees to better locations at the south end of the yard, while Alla "helped."

Mom and I took on the garden, which was totally overgrown. Mom found a couple beds full of Egyptian top-setting onions, and replanted them so Tighe will get a harvest of them in the spring. I dug up a big heap of Jerusalem artichokes, and after pulling out a lot of dead grass, we found several types of herbs, some strawberries, and a bunch of chives. 

I fell in love with the rock walls made from the local volcanic basalt. 

When we came back inside from the quite cold weather, Lisia had made chocolate croissants for everyone, her family's day-after-Thanksgiving tradition!

We offered up our many sets of hands to help with some of the house fix-up projects on Tighe's list. He took us up on the offer, and in the afternoon we went to work to get the trim in the parlor painted.

All of the yet-to-be-unpacked items that had been stored in the parlor were moved into the living room. Limo and Mina, the feline members of the household, found this to be a satisfactory development:

While we tackled the parlor, Mom scraped paint from the cabinet windows in the kitchen. 

Masking.

 Men contemplate the next course of action

 How many people does it take to paint a room's worth of trim?

Meanwhile, in another room...

...the lady of the house does homework.

 Before the masking came off, the room took on a patriotic feel. 

In daylight, bright red trim!

Matt and I spent Saturday night at Mom and Dad's, where I neglected to take any pictures at all, but where we enjoyed cold walks in the woods and yummy hot meals. I was so glad to finally see my brother's new home, and to help contribute to fixing it up. Plus there was lots of relaxing in between, touring his new hometown, and of course heaps and heaps of good food.