My Happy Thanksgiving

Any day that I get to eat turkey qualifies as a good day--but today's Thanksgiving was pretty exceptional. I didn't have the luxury of sleeping in this morning because I went to yoga class. Yup, working out on a holiday. That's me, never a day off! My regular gym had the day off (closed for Thanksgiving), but the Century City location was open and (Oh joy!) of the two classes they were offering, one was a yoga class.

The class was taught by Mita and she concentrated on poses that would aid in the digestion of our Thanksgiving feasting. Lots of twists, dragon's breath, back bends--it was a pretty cool class. Afterwards, I trekked back home and listened to a voice mail from my brother David wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving and read an e-mail from my other brother James conveying the same greetings.

Later, I headed down to Long Beach to have Thanksgiving dinner with my friend Stevie and her family. In addition to Stevie, and her husband and daughter (whom I've had the pleasure of watching grow up from a sweet little girl into a lovely young woman), there was her mom and stepdad, two brothers, a sister-in-law and a niece and nephew. And let's not forget Dizzy the dog. It was quite a crowd!

But there was plenty of food--turkey (yum!) and ham (yuck!), potatoes, salad, cranberry sauces, stuffing and bread. Talk about carbo loading! It was all the stuff I usually avoid but hey--it was Thanksgiving! There was also dessert. There were three different kinds of pies and a variety of cheesecakes. My ideal dessert would have been pumpkin pie with a dollop of Cool Whip (yes, it must be the pre-fab stuff in the plastic tub. I know I'm weird, but REAL whip cream doesn't taste as good to me. Especially on pumpkin pie!), but among the three pies there was no pumpkin. So I settled for a piece of chocolate cheesecake. I know--such deprivation!

After yummy food and getting caught up with stories of Stevie's adventures in NYC, I headed back home in time to watch Ugly Betty (to be recapped tomorrow AM!). All in all, a pretty typical holiday celebration. Well, if you swap "football" for Ugly Betty and skip the yoga...

Good food, good friends, good fun!