Ok...I am very behind in my Turkey Day recap. But all good things come to those who wait right?
As you know, the past 4 years my husband and I have spent Thanksgiving in Florida with my father and step mom. Due to my father being Catholic and my step mother being Jewish, the Christmas season wasn't too big in their house, so Thanksgiving is the important holiday to them. Even with my dad's passing we decided that we wanted to keep that tradition alive. Unfortunately due to some scheduling conflicts with the hubbs' work, we could not make the annual pilgrimage (pun intended) to Florida. While this pained me in the heart we decided to make due with this unforeseen circumstance and made plans to spend the food coma holiday with my family at my Aunt's home.
Our holiday started the evening before on Wednesday. A good friend from college had come back into town from Portland with her husband and new baby boy for a meet and greet. We met up at a local bowling alley and had some great conversation and met their adorable babe. (who is the spitting image of daddy!) It was great to see them and catch up. We have made tentative plans to travel to Portland within the year to visit. Wine tasting and sailing sound like a blast to me. Afterwards, Mr. P. had invited us out to a "bar crawl" in our local city. Not a bar hop because there really aren't too many places to go, but we still went out. We met up and had some good drinks and food. Met some wonderful new people and decided to people watch. The local young crowd (yes I still fall into that category) was quite interesting that evening and it seemed like the entire valley was out celebrating the holiday with their friends, before the split to spend with families. We walked into our local TGI Friday's and walked right back out. Standing room only! There was no way I was dealing with that mess! Once we made it to our final stop of the night we all got to talking about what Thanksgiving is to our families. Mr. P said that he and his family always go to a local electric go cart place and race before the big meal. He invited us to tag along for this little adventure.
When we pulled into the parking lot I was amped! I wanted to kick the hubbs' butt. However after watching this ridiculous safety video I got all paranoid that they were gonna kick me off the track for aggressive driving, so I held back both races and fell into last place. The hubbs ended up in second the last race and was super excited about it. We said our goodbye's and made plans for next year. Mr. P's family was super nice and inviting! Although, I think my super conservative driving might have been annoying! Hehe.
Afterwards, we left to drive to Simi for our first family Thanksgiving in 4 years. It was a strange feeling to me. I mean I am used to my giant family and having everyone around, but to have it on Thanksgiving was surreal. I kept myself busy by helping cook, and just hanging out in the kitchen while the hubs talked cars and football with my cousins and uncles. Once dinner was ready we all stood in a circle and said what we were grateful for that year. This was where my emotions stood out and the tears could not be left at bay (three glasses of wine didn't help that either.) We said grace and then stuffed our faces. Turkey, mashed potato's, salad, pie you name it....I indulged! Afterwards all the men retreated to the living room while the ladies did dishes. I did get a peek inside, and saw all of them on the couch about to pass out. It truly was a sight and I asked my dad Jon who was going to be the big spoon? We said our goodbyes and made our way to my in-laws for a bit as well.
Then came dreaded Black Friday. I tossed around the idea of heading out into the sales, but my senses kicked back in and I stayed home and cleaned until it was time to go over to our good friends for a second Turkey Day. It was a wonderful time spent with good friends, minus a little venting mishap. We ate and ate until we were sore! Told great stories and laughed. All in all it was a wonderful Thanksgiving spent with all the ones I love, and it made it that much easier to take.
Hope yours was as eventful as mine was and you got to spend it with those you love. I only have a couple of photos because we didn't have our camera! Gasp!
