The Games Afoot at Four County Players

Most years Four County Players in Barboursville puts on some kind of holiday play after Thanksgiving. This year they did The Games Afoot, or Holmes for the Holiday, which seemed fun so we bought tickets for the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. The theater went all out on the themed decorations, which was a lot of fun, and the play was surprisingly hilarious:

Love the deerstalker atop the tree

Note the pipe and magnifying glass on the centerpiece in the cafe

Part of the set - the play is set in 1936

Beautiful sky as we left the theater

Barracks Road Holiday Parade

We have not attended this since Abby marched in it with Girl Scouts in maybe 2016 or 2017, but the CHS marching band played this year, so we all tromped out the Saturday after Thanksgiving to watch it (it is a very short parade):

Planetarium Night at UVA

Once a year UVA opens the dome room in the rotunda to show off the design that Thomas Jefferson originally intended for the room, which was eventually completed as a graduate project by a group of students. The ceiling of the rotunda has an accurate depiction of the night sky, complete with the constellations, as it would have looked when the rotunda was built (Jefferson wanted Astronomy classes to be held there). Kevin and I had been to the event the first year it was held, but this year Benji was invited to perform as part of a small group of musicians so we can and stayed the whole two and a half hours. I did not remember it being quite so crowded, but the event was absolutely packed with people -- every chair on both levels full and people standing in the back (or in lines for the refreshments). Benji played both as part of the full group, performing Holst's The Planets every hour, and also performed a set of duets twice with James Tobin, who is a clarinetist and also leads the Youth Symphony Orchestra:

We arrived right at sunset and the lawn looked amazing

Part of the rotunda ceiling (since it is domed, it is impossible to get a good picture of the whole thing)

The group warming up (the doom room was also beautifully decorated for Christmas)

Picture just for a sense of how very packed it was

Thomas Jefferson interpreter offered some words (Benji in the background putting together his clarinet)

Benji and James dueting

The rotunda all dressed up for Christmas

Thanksgiving 2025

 

Break between courses

Family Guesstures game

Pie time!

Turkey Hands 2025

As per family tradition, we made our turkey hands the day before Thanksgiving and then finished the night with a cheese plate (or a cheez plate as I called it this year, since it was mostly nondairy). No fire, as it was nearly 70 degrees in Virginia:

Fall friends

This giant buck was just hanging out in our backyard over the Thanksgiving weekend:

New Car!

It was time to bid the van farewell (as it has broken down 4 times this year), which definitely feels like the close of a chapter since we bought it before Benji started kindergarten. It was 2 intense days of looking/negotiating, but we drove away from the dealership with a new Hyundai Tucson the day before Thanksgiving:

Bidding the van goodbye

New car in our driveway