This year, Thanksgiving crept up on us and swooshed right by. I believe it had to do with a winegrape picking season that lasted a week or two longer than normal.

We had a pretty full house during the holiday, like many of you did, I/m sure.

We had beautiful weather last week, although it sure would have been nice to see some rain. There have been some light frosts but not enough to put our vines to sleep for the winter.

I remember when we were kids, one of our jobs before Thanksgiving was to rake all the leaves that fell from the Chinese elm trees around our house.

Mom always decorated the house for the holidays, and both she and Dad wanted the yard to look nice when both sets of grandparents came to dinner.

My brother Dana and I could not figure out why the yard had to look nice, since Sam and Eileen lived 150 yards away and knew what the yard looked like all the time.

It was a little different for Dad/s folks, Katherine and Wen, since we did not see as much of them.

About two or three days before most holidays, my grandfather Sam would announce he would not be joining us that year, and he thought he would just stay home.

That, of course, would just aggravate my mom and grandmother Eileen to no end. He would always come and have a great time, especially when we were older, and we would all sing songs around the piano.

Mom even bought some early California songbooks in Santa Barbara that brought back fond memories. Sam and my mom used to sing those same songs in their kitchen on Rancho la Vega when she was a small girl.

This past Thanksgiving found us around the piano once again for a songfest that included three generations singing those same songs.

It is a quiet four days on the vineyard. All of the folks who work for us are able to take off early Wednesday if they would like to and return to work on Monday morning.

It is a time when things slow down and we get ready to apply herbicides and get our pruning equipment ready for late December. Our irrigators are repairing sprinklers and drip hose broken during harvest.

My sister, Mia, and her husband, Pat, took advantage of the quiet vineyard and its surrounding hills by taking early morning walks and relaxing amid the sprawling oaks and colorful vines that line the roads and pathways throughout the ranch.

The kids spent much of their time riding bikes and pedal tractors outside and enjoying the golden sunshine of the Central Coast.

One morning, we took a nostalgic trip down to Gaviota Beach, where we enjoyed some snacks leftover from Thanksgiving and gazed out over the beach.

Mia, Pat and the kids took off for a walk as Mom and I sat on a picnic table and reminisced over all of the afternoons spent there when we grew up. Somehow the beach seemed smaller and the pier closer than our memories recalled.

After a while, as we were on our way home, we stopped in at Rancho la Vega for another walk down memory lane. I wanted Mom to show me where the former dairy barn stood that my grandfather Sam worked in for many years, just west of the adobe house.

Although the yard around the adobe has changed a great deal since Mom was a little girl growing up there, she was glad the Mosbys are restoring it so it will be there for future generations to see.

I asked her where the pump was located near the river that Sam used to irrigate alfalfa with. Mom said it was down near the original bridge that crossed the river to Buellton. Part of that bridge is still standing.

As we crossed the newer bridge that is part of Highway 101, she recalled sadly riding her horse over the old bridge for the last time when she was 14, as she rode to her new home on Rancho El Alamo Pintado.

A great part of the holiday season is remembering and sharing the past with both new and old family members; watching our children Kathleen and Clayton play with their cousins from Virginia or Visalia and begin the next generation of memories spent outside on a vineyard in Los Alamos.

I hope you all enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving with family or friends and shared in a special time of year.

Kevin Merrill is a vineyard manager for Mesa Vineyard Management in Santa Maria. He is president of the Central Coast Wine Growers/ Association and a board member of the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau. He can be reached at kmerrill@mesavineyard.com.

December 2, 2007