Thanksgiving on the Shore

Happy Thanksgiving!  Madison felt inspired to write this in the sand along the shoreline here, something she's been doing as a tradition for quite some time whenever we come to the beach.  Usually, she'll write someone's name and we'll send pictures back of that person's name in the sand.  Today she did that as well, but she wrote a few other things too, which you'll see soon enough.

In any event, today was Thanksgiving, and it was a different one than the usual feast we have at the house.  We were down in Daytona, and with the usual beautiful view of the ocean, we went about our Thanksgiving Day with some of the usual traditions, just in a different location.  For example, there were these two:

No Thanksgiving is complete without these two salt and pepper shakers.  We were up earlier and were ready for the other tradition, which is watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  It was super windy today, and there were threats of not having the balloons in the parade, but at the last minute a decision was made, and the balloons were given the all clear.  The handlers just had to carry them low, and you could tell throughout the morning that there were difficulties in maneuvering the balloons through the streets.  In fact, Ronald McDonald did not make it to the parade's hub, nor did this other balloon by a Japanese artist.  Fortunately, all of the others did, as did the bands, floats and so on.  It was a great parade this morning, always fun to watch.

Here we are though, watching the KidPak Thanksgiving Special, which by this point had a lot more views from KidPak families all over.

You can see everyone watching here, an on screen you can see the three pilgrims:  Josh, Joey and Daddy there, as hosts of the special.

Speaking of group shots, here's a wonderful one of the family just prior to eating our Thanksgiving feast this afternoon.

As mentioned earlier, there's so much to be thankful for.  Yesterday's news, the end of radiation, was such a wonderful moment, and such a contrast to the misery that was about three or four weeks ago.  The fact that Ba-Ba was able to eat a little bit of a slice of turkey was in itself a miracle, and he was able to have some other items on his plate as well.  Mommy and Nana prepared a meal together in the kitchen, and it had of course turkey, but also cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and all the other wonderful traditions of Thanksgiving.  We said the blessing, and expressed our thanks for such an amazing moment, for being together with family.

That's what Madison wrote in the sand afterwards.  We were out there on the beach, walking along the shoreline on such a beautiful day.  At one point, we decided to dig this channel for the water to stream back to the ocean, and it turned into this big labor the two of us were working on for quite some time.

I'm not sure why we were doing this, but we did something like this earlier this week, so why not?  You can see Madison below, working on the dam that is diverting the water flow.  It's concentrated into one thinner channel, so the water is actually a little more fast-paced through that area.  Rafting is probably pretty good there.

We decorated one portion with a marker, a shell that we found nearby.  These shells are usually shattered and shiny, but this one actually was all in one piece, somehow surviving so that we could use it in our channel decor.

What an odd thing to do for Thanksgiving, but again, why not?  We walked north on the shoreline for just a bit, and then decided to get to work right away on our big project.  The floodplains were spared, and hopefully crops were saved and a hydroelectric dam will be built along the way to supply everyone with electricity.

We worked on this for a little bit, but then it was soon time to part ways with our enterprise.  You can see Project Manager Madison here below in this photo, posing in the midst of this master work.  

It is somewhat relaxing and therapeutic, isn't it?  Working in the sand, and creating various castles and channels, or burying things or digging holes.  It's winter, so we don't have to worry about the pathway of sea turtles in the sand, so we left this one as is, where it rested until the tide started coming back in again.

We had pie and ice cream a bit later on, and Mommy and Nana were working on their ancestry online, looking through old pictures and gathering up info and reminiscing about various people in that family tree.  We watched the official pardoning ceremony of Bread and Butter, the two turkeys that were taken to the White House.  Both had luxurious accommodations, and have no idea how blessed they really are.  It was fun watching this little ceremony though, a tradition that goes back many, many years.

It was a good Thanksgiving.  Again, we have so much to be thankful for.  We don't have to look to far to see the miraculous on display, but then again, there are so many things that we take for granted as well.  And those are miracles too.  Life is full of miracles.