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Once again this year, the Cooper family made the trip to Dale Hollow Lake in Tennessee in order to spend a few days together all in one place.  This is (I think) the 12th year that we have gathered in this particular place at this particular time.  The time is the weekend following Thanksgiving weekend, this year, December 2 – 6, 2015.

This timing leaves everyone free to enjoy their Thanksgiving in their homes and avoids interfering with family Christmas plans and avoids the stressful Christmas travel time.  We rent two side by side, 5 bedroom cabins at Eagle Cove Resort on the shore of Dale Hollow Lake.  Our full group totals about 23 people.  You can well appreciate that at this time of year, we have the place mostly to ourselves.

My siblings and I arrived there on Wednesday to have a couple of days to hang out before the rest of the family comes in on Friday.  Everyone is assigned various food items to bring that get combined into quite a wonderful series of meals.  We have a white elephant gift exchange, craft time, group games and a photo session so that each family group can be captured for this year’s event.

This year Valerie and I flew into Nashville where we were met by my sister Sheila.  We spent the night with her and then made the drive to Dale Hollow Lake on Wednesday.  The weather this year was quite nice, a bit cold the first day but then sunny and pleasant for the remainder of the week.

We look forward to this event every year and hope that we can continue to keep the entire family participating in it.