Not-Really-Thanksgiving

Sit back and relax, I am now going to channel my inner ten year old and tell you about my winter vacation ...

Nine years ago my family celebrated our first Thanksgiving without my mom. My mom, aunt and I had always been into the holidays and liked to celebrate them with a lot of pomp and circumstance, so my aunt and I decided that the family would do a Not-Really-Thanksgiving. We ended up renting a gorgeous house in The Keys and dining on lobster after a day of deep sea fishing. It was a good way to get over that hurdle of "moving forward." This year, we were faced with same hurdle since it was our first Thanksgiving without my aunt. My uncle and I decided that we would do this Not-Really-Thanksgiving with a brunch at his yacht club and a football game.

Boo and I woke up nice and early (2:08 A friggen M) on Thursday to catch a flight to Miami. Despite (or maybe because of) the early hour, the view from my seat was great:



And, we were graced with the presence of a "celebrity" on our flight.



It's Terry, from last season's Survivor. Impressed? I know you are. Heh. I think he and his family were flying standby or whatever it is that pilots do when they are not actually flying the plane because he was wearing his pilot's outfit. Actually, this is not the first time I have run into a "celebrity" at my teeny tiny local little airport. Last Thanksgiving when Boo and I were flying to Miami, we were waiting at our gate for the passengers to deplane so that the airline could clean it and then load us up when Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn got off. Why they were there I have no idea.

Any way, once we landed we cleaned up and went to the yacht club. I was "forced" to stare at this:



while we were eating. Not bad. After a short nap, we cleaned up (again - because we're messy like that) and went to the game. It (like most of the trip) was bittersweet. It was great to win but sad to know it was Larry's last game.

The weekend also included visits with friends, lots of good food, and a trip to the mall on Black Friday with BeFri where we saw this:



She denied being influenced by Oprah and said she just wanted to spread some holiday cheer but I found the whole thing suspect.

The building formerly known as the Centrust building which I think might now be the Bank of America building, was lit up nice and pretty with snow flakes for the holidays:



As was this house:





Those are five blow up thingamajigs you see there, including the Nativity Scene. Driving by, you are forced to stop as you say "Holy Crap!" The pictures don't really do it justice, but let me say that this house is in a very affluent neighborhood surrounded by million dollar homes tastefully decorated with small white twinkly lights. I am sure the neighbors LOVE this (and the accompanying hum and whir of each blow up thingamajig).

While I was visiting with my uncle he let me look at some of my aunt's knitting stuff. In her stash, I found this:



I was gobsmacked. These are sweaters that she knit for me. I assume these were gifts planned for my birthday and C'mas. They were just waiting for some buttons. Needless to say, after a good cry, I packed those babies up. I'm not sure if she had the buttons picked out and they are sitting somewhere in her stash. I was too verklempt to keep looking.

I was not, however, too verklempt to notice the money that was laying on the ground in the middle of the street by the cheap-as-hell $2.19/gallon gas station! Yah baby! It's like it grow on trees ...



Venezuelan trees! I'll have you know that is 0.466287 US Dollars. Or roughly forty-seven cents. Go me!

We stayed at Bikini Bottom, my friend Opa's house. He, as always, abandoned us and went on a trip of his own. He did, however, leave a list of rules and instruction about ten pages long which included gems like "no heterosexual sex," "all television shows must be viewed in their original black and white format," and "no sitting on, drinking near, or looking too much at the green couches." Every time we go to Opa's it is like walking back in time. His house is styled circa 1950. This would be totally cool except, all of the stuff inside is also circa 1950. Have you ever wiped your butt with 50 year old toilet paper or brushed your teeth with 50 year old toothpaste? It gives a little something extra to the experience. I did not, however, drink is 50 year old liquor. I was tempted, but scared.

For both of our flights we sat in first class. But, the flight home was an hour and a half late. This was good for knitting purposes because I am almost done with my second sleeve.



Whew! We were initially scheduled to sit in row one but ended up switching seats with a guy in row four who had no legs (no kidding). And, as no good deed goes unpunished, they ran out of "filet mignon" in row three and we were left with the worst pasta ever! The flight attendant felt so bad, she gave us "thank you" gifts for switching seats.



When she gave these to us she said that they were out of wine or she would have given us a bottle or two. I was totally cool with this because I thought that blue insert had a MasterCard gift card thing tucked in it. Wrong! It is just your run-of-the mill vanity set. Bummer!

The late plane meant that when all was said and done, I was in bed at 2:51 a.m. As I leaned over to set my alarm, I was amused to note that I was going to bed later than when I has woken up just four days before.

As for meeting my vacation goals, I did not smack a ho'(of either the good cheer Santa variety or of the hoochie variety - both of which were way too prevalent for my tastes) or sit on the beach. Nor did I drink copious amounts of liquor from 1958, but I did have a nice glass of wine. I also pretended that is was not Thanksgiving, to the mall of Black Friday. Not too shabby!