Sunny Turkey
Both sides of the Robot families have pretty boring American Thanksgivings. On the in-law side, I don't even know what they do - it's that uneventful. On my side, my parents crowd into my uncle's kitchen and eat take-out turkey.
I think I made this more boring that it actually is. Who knows. I haven't spent Turkey Day with my family since... 1997. For reals.
For the past three or so years we've spent Turkey Day in the lovely town of Los Angeles - or "LA" as they call it. My college roommate Kristy lives out there with her handsome husband (AKA "K&M") and it's always a good time. For reals. It's a grand time. You can't get much grander. Grand!
Time Diff
As you may remember from past "We went to LA for turkey" posts (2008. 2006.), our trick is that we fly out Thursday morning. It's a much more peaceful time to do anything. Thanksgiving morning is like the eye of the holiday storm. All calm and quiet. You made it through Wednesday and the travel madness and you have stupid "Black Friday" ahead of you and the rest of the holiday season.
The flight was peaceful. We arrived an hour early (I think they pushed that little "overdrive" button on the gearshift in the plane) and made it to Kristy's house by 1pm. Time win!
Turkey
The actual Thanksgiving meal was lovely. So much good food with the standouts being the stuffing with sausage and the sweet potato au gratin. There was wine.
Bloody Friday
Instead of Black Friday, we do Bloody Friday: Bloody Marys, leftovers, and James Bond movies. K&M bought this crazy digital projector thing for Bloody Friday that along with the nutso surround-sound and the big screen turned their basement into a very nicely appointed home theatre. The screen was huge.
Highlights included sabering bottles of sparkling wine, eating "hot dish" (has tater-tots), and either sitting out in the sunshine (or in the hot tub (and with a stormtrooper helmet on)) or watching Bond films indoors.
Roger Moore. What were they thinking?
I win! Saturday we and saw the ponies. Or, the horses. I have never been to horse races and have never actually gambled (except in love) so it was quite exciting when my first bet was on a horse with 17-1 odds. And he won. And I had bet that he would win and that he would either place first or second.
$4 yielded me $40.
Sweet. I don't know why people have issues with gambling. It's really easy to win.
Except of course that I didn't win a single dollar after that - even on the horse that had my grandmother's name.