This Thanksgiving was full of new experiences. In 15 years of marriage, we’d NEVER traveled for this holiday. Until this year.

With our regular dinner companions, my sister and her family, now living in Missouri, we knew this Thanksgiving had the potential to be very sad for all of us.

So what better way to deal with that than a change of scenery?!

That’s what we thought, too. So we traded red clay for sand and went to the beach.

And really, who could focus on the negative with THIS view?

Or perhaps THIS one:

We stayed in a beachfront condo on the 19th floor,
with a wraparound balcony.
Absolutely gorgeous! Even if the height made us grownups dizzy,
especially when the kids did this:

Charlie cooked a full Thanksgiving feast,

this year accompanied by two little helpers.

We walked on the beach on a blustery day.

Which kept getting blustery-er. So of course we went to the pool.

Guess who DIDN’T go swimming?

Fortunately, not every day was so cold and windy.
A few were absolutely beautiful, even if still a little chilly.

Like this one:

Of course, the MOST wonderful weather showed up on Sunday, the day we left for home.

***

And around 4 pm yesterday, after driving 5 hours, we discovered at least ONE reason why we’ve never before traveled on Thanksgiving weekend.

TRAFFIC.

A 6.5 hour drive soon turned into an 8.5 hour drive.

A sample of Charlie’s running monologue as we crawled thru south Atlanta:

“We should’ve left earlier . . . . I can’t believe we’re at a complete stop. . . . Oh, so NOW you speed up. Thanks, Sparky. . . . SIGH. Why does the right lane start moving again right after I get out of it? . . . We should’ve left the beach earlier. . . . I hate the Georgia DOT (for cleverly closing lanes on a holiday weekend). . . . THIS is why I’m glad I don’t commute. . . . If I had to drive in this every day, I’d feel like I was wasting half my life. . . . Sir, do you REALLY need six car-lengths between you and the RV up ahead? REALLY?”

I just smiled and nodded and agreed. After all, I wasn’t driving.

(HIS choice, for the record)

We got home just in time to feed everyone sandwiches and send them to bed. This was good, because by this time Charlie had turned into the Grinch That Stole Christmas.

Fortunately, he had NFL football to cheer him up.

(Which will hopefully keep him cheery even after he reads my mockery in this post. Thank God for Monday Night Football.)

Today we all have way too much on our to-do lists.

(Mine includes unpacking, laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, and writing. Then MAYBE some Christmas decorating.)

So between the dastardly traffic and missing a prime Christmas-decorating weekend, I’m not sure we’ll make this a tradition. But it sure was fun.

And now we want a beach condo. Anyone wanna give us one?

(C’mon … PERFECT Christmas gift … Anyone?)