This year, I’m spending Thanksgiving with Mike’s family in Florida. We drove seven hours from Gainesville, Georgia to Destin, Florida in a van packed with six people, two dogs, and enough food to survive a zombie apocalypse.

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The beaches are empty. The water is cold. The sand is blindingly white.

Here’s our house rental – the Banana Cabana. It has it’s own private pool, golf cart, and pet gates. It gets bonus points for being completely covered in tacky tropical themed decorations.

Family Pics

We left the house at six in the morning one day to see the sunrise, and take a few family photos.

Sampson was shivering.

I couldn’t see.

This is like a sample photo that you get when you buy a photo frame.

Golf Carting

The best thing about our house rental is that it comes with an electric golf cart. Surprisingly, it’s legal to drive on the road with the other cars – considering it crawls at an embarrassing ten miles an hour.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Mike’s mom has been slaving away in the kitchen for the last few days preparing this feast for us tonight. It was absolutely amazing – especially considering we were on a trip. Go Gwen!

The bird came out lovely.

Gwen went to town on the sides. One thing I learned about her – whenever she makes food, she makes double of what we will eat. You’ll never be hungry with her around. :)

I FINALLY TRIED FRIED OKRA! It was so good! I had no idea it was fried in litte rounds – I always assumed that it would be fried whole. I can’t wait to make them at home (sans grease).

I was very excited to have a *real* traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. Not that my previous thanksgiving dinners with my parents were bad – they were just Asian-American. (We skipped the turkey sometimes and went with seafood instead.)

Gwen’s cranberry sauce was delicious! She made it from scratch, and it was perfectly tart.

Oh yes. OH YES.

Here’s the whole family. From left to right: Jeffrey (Mike’s brother in law), Amy (his sister), Sampson (black puppy), Nini (grandma), Benji (white dog), Joe (dad), Mike, Gwen (mom), and me.