home on the ranch

hello from bartlesville!
We were so blessed to spend Thanksgiving in Bartlesville, Oklahoma with R's entire family. One thing that typifies our time together is FOOD.  I know, I know, it's Thanksgiving; that's not super original, but since I'm just now emerging from my food coma I thought is was worth mentioning that they do not approach a holiday menu cavalierly.

One particularly noteworthy tradition for R's family is the thanksgiving pies.  When I met R in Asia he insisted on baking pumpkin pie each thanksgiving (we actually spent a couple together even before we were dating). He maintains that he has baked a pumpkin pie every year for the last 15 years.
showcasing R's pumpkin pie in Asia 2009 at Thanksgiving pre-engagement :)

Growing up Mama C had assigned each child a pie to bake to contribute towards the Thanksgiving feast.  It started with their eldest making apple pie.  Then R took on pumpkin.  Younger sister is meticulous with her pecan pie. Then, not wanting to leave anyone out, they created a "Harvest Berry" pie to keep younger brother occupied.
Apple Pie in process
pecans perfectly placed- Southern Living cover-worthy presentation
Chocolate mouse pie by brother-in-law
(not to be confused with chocolate bourbon pie )
pie table- yum!


In recent years the pie:person ration has been ridiculous but with so many of us together we each were responsible to eat a little less than half of the five pies.  Brother also replaced his harvest berry with a chocolate bourbon pie and it was divine.

Probably my favorite day of our trip was Saturday.  After our annual Usinger's breakfast we headed out to pasture to ride horses. I have always wanted to be a horse person, but never really had the opportunity aside from summer camps. There is something so thrilling about riding such a beautiful animal over which you have a degree of control but not total control.

Thursday night we went out to introduce ourselves to the horses and get acquainted.

right at home with the horses!

he wasn't too interested in my coffee


oh hai baby calves! you are soooo cute!



yee haw! kicking up dust :)

mom & son home on the ranch

After we rode, we also took some family pictures which I think turned out perfect! I will post those on a separate post tomorrow.  Then we watched the Florida-FSU game (go gators!) while simultaneously watching oklahoma-osu both of which were crazy, but so fun.  We went out to dinner together and that's when it became real that we were leaving for a long time.  There were tears in the backseat on the way to the airport in the morning, and an extra measure of lethargy at returning to Virginia not knowing when we'll see these dear people again. Grateful for a wonderful holiday together.  

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