Happy Non-traditional Thanksgiving!

Sky/Ben's Thankfulness Tree

Today is moving day...out of Orlando! We got up and had biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We didn't have sewer hookups at this last site at Bill Frederick so most everyone took showers at the campground. Since I was working on the breakfast dishes, I decided to read the levels when those were done and see if I could eek out a shower in the trailer and I could. :0) We gave the trailer a quick wash and were packed up and out of our site on time, even before 11 am! We stopped by the dump station and then hit the road. Tom said we had a whopping 35 minute drive to our next camping site in Haines City, Florida.

We had reserved the site ahead and since no one was in the office for Thanksgiving Day, we just pulled right in to our site and got set up. Tempers were a little high and so that initial period was a little tough. BUT, our site is really nice. We are right next to the laundry room, bathrooms and the pool! Right away, a really nice man came and invited us to Thanksgiving Meal here at the park's clubhouse, but with tempers being what they were and the fact that I was unprepared to contribute something, I didn't feel comfortable showing up with our big family.

We had a few snacks and then decided to walk to Winn Dixie where there was a Redbox and we picked up Madagascar 3 for family movie night tonight and The Lucky One for Brock and I after the kids went to bed. The walk was so nice! The weather was just perfect here. It was a little breezy, but the sky was completely blue and it was about 72 degrees. When we returned from our walk, we all put on our swimsuits and the kids hit the pool and Brock and I hit the sun chairs and read our books. It was pretty relaxing. We stayed until pretty much all the pool area was in the shade and it was really too cold to stay then.

After pool time, it was time to start preparing our feast. I made candied yams and baked some fingerling potatoes. I stringed some sugar snap peas and heated some King's Hawaiian Dinner Rolls. Brock grilled our steaks to perfection on our grill. I was kind of excited because I think this was the first time we've had success in using that new grill that I stewed so much over whether we could bring or not. We have not actually been very happy with it because it seems like you only have too choices, high or nuclear heat and we kept burning everything. Maybe Brock is learning the finer art of manipulating this particular grill. Maybe we will keep it after all. :O) We washed all this delicious food down with a 2 liter of cream soda. (Not exactly sparkling cider, kindof festive looking and EVERYONE likes it so that makes it a good choice.)

Fingerling potatoes took longer than expected to
bake so didn't make plating time. They were pretty
fun with purple and pink ones. They all taste about
like normal potatoes.

Dinner and the family movie were awesome. We had a slight intermission towards the end of the movie for bathroom breaks and dessert - pecan pie with vanilla ice cream. When the movie was over, it was time for all kids to hit the sack. Time for Brock and I to cuddle up and watch our movie. Yay! This was not our traditional Thanksgiving, had its rough spots, and we really missed our family back home, but all in all a good day and one in which we could definitely be thankful for our countless blessings.