Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I hope you and your families were able to enjoy a similarly delicious meal as to the one we consumed over several hours today.

This year, I said I didn't want to cook. My daughter was going to be in Philadelphia over the holiday with her father's family. We got tickets to a fancy buffet.

Then I started thinking about all of the traditional foods and was worrying we wouldn't get them.

I decided to make some of the side dishes, and then decided to heck with it, and it become a full blown meal. We ate this big turkey dinner last night. We made a 3-lb turkey breast on the grill using a recipe from the Food Network, more sides than you can shake a stick at, and one particularly delicious pumpkin pie.

Last night. So I spent over 4 hours cooking a meal, and it was worth it. I love the smell of Thanksgiving dinner cooking, and many things just taste so much better homemade.

Today, we went and stuffed ourselves silly again. They had shrimp, crab legs, lox, pate, baked brie, a huge cheese and fruit platter, turkey, prime rib, lobster ravioli, stuffing, mashed potatoes, salmon, veggies, cranberry sauce, and a dessert buffet that would've made your pants burst just looking at it.

They had so much food, I didn't even have room for one bite of each dish. That's a lot of food.

It was unusually warm today, too. It hit 74 at one point. We sat on the deck by the beach. On one side of the deck, you could see vacationers swimming in the pool. On the other side of the deck, you could see people ice skating. On the beach. Yes, really.

After dinner, we also enjoyed a spectacular sunset.

The only thing missing today was my little one. I miss her so much, she made it to Philadelphia and then got sick. I hope it is just a cold, but what a huge temperature change- last week it was 93 degrees here, and it was 41 in Philly today. As cold as that sounds, I do find it weird to celebrate Thanskgiving on a day when I could wear shorts outside.

And I'll never get used to seeing Christmas lights on Palm Trees! They lit up the hotel grounds today in the official start of the Christmas season. The huge Christmas tree was on display, and ornaments were for sale in the gift shop.

Now we're sitting back at home, and football is on the TV. I can't believe the shopping frenzy that is about to take place- several stores are opening at midnight tonight, and I hear one store is even opening at 9pm to try to catch shoppers.

If you're one of the 137 million shoppers expected, here's hoping you find a parking space.

*Photo courtesy of http://www.hoteldel.com/gallery/phototour.asp#