Turkey Day 2011

My parents have had just about enough family time, thankyouverymuch, so this year, they opted for a Hawaiian cruise over Thanksgiving with their offspring. Can't say I blame them, though, and I'm sure they are having a blast on the open seas.

But that didn't mean Thanksgiving, or even Thanksgiving in San Diego, was canceled. Mark and I headed to the family compound, where I gave thanks for having a brother who likes to cook.

When my nieces and nephew greeted us, I was shocked to see the oldest, Nathalie, was the same height as me! It's only been a month or two since I've seen her, but she sure sprouted up during that time. And boy, did she love being as tall as me. She stood next to me every chance she got, and asked me 537 times how tall I was. I kept changing it up just to confuse her.

My family likes to eat, so they don't even put up the pretense of letting me cook during the holidays. I came bearing pies instead. My brother Scott took them from me, and told us that we were having a late lunch--my sis-in-law Mary predicted it would be served some time between 2 and 6 p.m. Since even that four-hour window of time was not a guarantee, Scott encouraged us to fill up on appetizers.

I helped Mary a bit in the kitchen, until Scott came in and announced we'd start drinking at noon. I glanced at the clock; it was 12:02.

"Break out the wine!" he said, so we did.

We also busted out the appetizers. My favorite was the bacon-wrapped dates, which I encouraged Mark to try. My niece Gabi also encouraged him, but for a whole different reason.

"Yeah, have a date--it's probably the only date you'll ever have!" she cackled. I'm pretty sure Mark smacked her after that, but I was laughing too hard to reprimand him.

Scott and Mary's friends and their kids also joined us. Their Natalie was not just taller than me--she literally towered above me! And Ethan was unlucky enough to bear a passing resemblance to Mark, so every time I saw a brown-haired boy darting down the hall, I yelled out "Did you test your blood sugar?" or "Did you bolus?" Nine times out of 10, Ethan turned to look at me, confused as to why I kept verbally assaulting him. Mark, however, loved it.

Chris and Hilary also brought their dogs. Moments after they arrived, Bailey, the chocolate lab, jumped into the pool, where she spent the rest of the day. Mary raced past me, calling out, "Oh my God, don't tell your mom about this!" Mom may have been out to sea, but she was there in spirit all weekend, mostly whenever someone was about to do something stupid, and the rest of the family cried out, "Grandma will KILL you if she finds out!" We really do love my Mom, but she keeps us in line even when she's thousands of miles away.

After a brief nap (which may or may not have been wine-induced--I'll never tell), we sat down to an amazing dinner. Kudos to Scott and Mary for such a fabulous feast!

Even better than the food was the company. Our good friend Sasha was in town, and stopped by to visit. We spent the evening laughing until my face literally hurt. At one point, everyone was in the kitchen, talking loudly (yes, you, Scott!) and hurling questions toward poor Sasha, who became completely overwhelmed. I thought she might actually run away, but she's been part of the family long enough, and she overcame it.

With Thanksgiving down, we still had three more days o'fun to fill.We took the kids to Sea World. They'd already been on Tuesday, but it was a gorgeous day so we went again. We took our picture inside a giant snow globe, saw the dolphin show, and watched a real reindeer tear around his pen. We bailed when it looked like he might actually escape or harm the Sea World trainer; I'm not sure my boss would believe me if I called in sick after being mauled by a reindeer.

We joined Sasha's family that evening for Thai food. I was on turkey overload, so I ordered pad Thai.  

"What number spicy, from one to 10?" the waitress asked.

"I dunno, 5?" I answered. I figured halfway up the scale was safe.

But my friend Ann panicked. "I only get 4 1/2!" she warned, so I scaled it down to a 4. Which still burned my mouth--the family cracked up at me and my wussy taste buds, especially when Mark popped in a mouthful with no problem. (Rotten kid can eat fire and not even blink.) But even a burnt tongue was a small price to pay for dinner with some of my favorite peeps.

On Saturday, we hung out with one of my college roommates. I hadn't seen Andrea for a few years, and in that time, she got married, and we both had kids. I was excited to meet her new family, and to introduce Mark (who is not the kid in the picture! That's my nephew--Mark took the photo).

Her family was in town, and did what most San Diego visitors do--they went to Sea World (the other 50% go to the zoo; we have passes there too, so we're covered). Mark and I met up with them there, and brought my nephew Grant for his third trip that week.

The Sea World parking lot is huge, and out of all the parking spaces, I picked the one right next to Andrea! What are the chances?!? We spent a fun day with Andrea and her fam, with Grant leading the way to each exhibit because, he reminded us, he knew where every place was.

"Oh yeah? Where's Rancho Cucamonga?" I asked, so he clarified he knew where everything in Sea World was.

We returned home for our next engagement, dinner at the neighbor's house. I was happy because Scott the neighbor, is a chef, and his food did not disappoint. I was also excited to meet Michelle's famous Uncle Bim, who my parents love. He had great stories, and an even better Alabama accent. The conversation slowed down after dinner, though, as Uncle Bim fell asleep at the table. He woke briefly to mention something about his time zone being three hours ahead, but then he fell back asleep. The funniest thing was that it did not slow down dinner in the least--we all kept laughing, drinking wine, and talking. My brother Scott was telling stories, loudly, as he's famous for doing, and it didn't bother Uncle Bim in the least--he actually started snoring.

"He always falls asleep," Scott said later. "He usually blames it on the jet lag."

Sunday was our last day together, which bummed out Mark (he loves his cousins). Mary announced we were going out for breakfast, and I saw the kids move faster than I had all weekend (they really love brekky!). We had a sing-along in the car, switching up the words to all the songs, and singing about how we were sexy and we knew it ("I work out!"). If that mini-van was fueled by giggles, we could've driven on forever.

By the time we packed up our car and headed out, I was exhausted from laughing so much all weekend. I had such a blast with the kids--they're at that age now where they really get it, and they've all got such diverse, hilarious senses of humor, I could just spend my days listening to them and cracking up.

So even though my parents were gone, we still managed to have a pretty awesome Thanksgiving. And I'm still giving thanks now, days later, for being lucky enough to be surrounded by the thing I hold most dear to my heart--my family and friends.

Man, I can't wait until Christmas!