Turkey Day

Well it was definitely an untraditional Thanksgiving for us this year.  For starters it was our first big holiday ever without our families, and honestly being here alone was a little sad.  But it was also fun because it made this move seem like a bit more of an adventure.

I started off the morning watching the sunrise, which amazingly I do most mornings these days. I'm hoping to get a nicer camera and maybe take some photography classes after I have a job, because these pictures just don't do it justice.






We headed down to Cocoa Beach for their annual Turkey Trot just after 7 am.  I know, it's hard for me to believe I watch sunrises and leave the house at 7 am by choice too!  After having such a blast cheering on Shelby at the DC Marathon last month with my girlfriends, I had high expectations, and so the Turkey Trot 
was a bit of a let down.  Only a few people dressed up, and maybe 
half a dozen carried turkeys, but Jimmy is talking about running it 
next year, so maybe that will add to the excitement.  There were some pretty interesting turkey carrying strategies:










From the race we walked over to one of our favorite new restaurants, a little Cuban place called Roberto's and had breakfast.  We realized it was the first time either of us had ever been out to eat for any meal on Thanksgiving.



After sharing a half pitcher of sangria we headed home to watch the Macy's Day Parade and enjoy a sangria inspired siesta.  I'm pretty sure the pilgrims would have been proud!  I then got to work preparing our Thanksgiving Day feast.  From here our day got even more untraditional.  I realized my turkey was absorbing a lot of juice and had already sucked up 2 cans of chicken broth.  To be safe, Jimmy and I decided to run out to the store to pick up another can.  We got in the elevator, the doors closed, and I pushed the button for the 1st floor.  Only nothing happened.  After pushing the door open button several times, and every other button for that matter, we finally had to push the "call for help" button.  Fortunately that one did work.  We were told help was on the way and proceeded to wait...and wait.  We were able to get the attention of one of our neighbors who was kind enough to offer to wait on the other side of the door with us.  I told him we were fine, but did ask that he check back with us in 30 minutes so I could have him break into the house to baste my turkey if we were still trapped.   He was very sweet and kept checking back with us, letting us know he had called and was giving us updates on how much longer we had to wait.  And after 40 minutes we were finally freed.  I was a little disappointed we were not rescued by the fire department because I thought having a picture of us with a firefighter would be really cool for the blog, but instead have this picture of us with our maintenance man.



After being cooped up in the elevator, we finally got our turkey basted and headed down to the beach.  It was a little chilly with the wind blowing, but still very cool the weather was nice enough for us to be hanging out on the beach.




And finally it was time to eat.  I wasn't willing to miss out on any of our favorites, so we ended up with a ridiculous amount of food for 2 people.    And thankfully, according to Jimmy, his mom's 
stuffing recipe came out just like she makes it.








The thing I probably missed the most was our annual post-Thanksgiving party with our friends.  We did head down the street to one of the bars at the port and had a good time, but it just wasn't the same.  By next year we should have some new friends and hopefully we can resume our party tradition.  But for now, we are extremely thankful that our wish to move and start a new adventure together came together this year!




As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy