Thanksgiving.

We are home, safe and sound, from our wonderful Thanksgiving vacation to Kiawah Island, SC. This was the first time I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner away from home. When I was searching for houses online I was especially concerned about the kitchens. If we were going to pull off a feast, we needed a real kitchen with a full size oven and all the cooking basics. After renting what we hoped to be the perfect house, I gathered all my recipes, a bunch of ingredients, my potato masher, and hoped for the best. It was a good thing  I brought the potato masher. My pie plates would have been nice but the cake pans at the house ended up working out just fine. Minor kitchen equipment blips aside, the whole day was totally perfect. The kids popped in and out of the kitchen, lending a hand  or just grabbing a snack, while I bustled away cooking up a storm. We enjoyed some bike riding and beach walking during the not-so-busy moments. And in the end, we enjoyed a fantastic feast ~ served on the same china that my dad has (strangely enough). I missed being with more family, but I also relished the simplicity of it just being the five carmonas. Some gratitude highlights from the kids:
Gita: Being a Carmona
Nimuae: awesome family
Noah: good grades