Turkey Day, California Style

We just got back from spending the Thanksgiving holiday in California with my family. It was Turkey Day, California style. (This is not to be confused with a "California style" sandwich which usually means that they add avocado or alfalfa sprouts.) This year, California style meant very busy with plenty of food and plenty of people around to eat it. Maybe your Thanksgiving was California style, too.

We of course had the obligatory turkey and stuffing with cranberry sauce on Thursday. The early part of Friday was spend recovering from stuffing ourselves on Thursday, but on Friday night the entire family went to Knott's Berry Farm to take a family portrait. You might be thinking that we could have just taken a group picture in front of the fireplace at home or some other cozy setting, but this is not the way of the Volbeda family. We cannot simply take a picture. We need to make it arduous and complicated and turn it into a big production. As is our family custom, we went to Knott's to get our picture taken at their old west photo studio. It was a two hour wait because the people who work there run it like they were still in the old west. But the result was a great family memory. (See picture)

After emerging from a time warp in the photo studio, we decided to once again engorge ourselves by eating at Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant. We heard someone say the wait was 1 1/2 hours when we first got in line. That seemed like a long time to wait, but the man in front of us assured us that he ate at the restaurant regularly and that the wait was only about 45 minutes from the place we were at in line. Based on the fact that that he was extremely large and riding one of those scooters, I judged him to be an expert on the subject and took him at his word. While I don't doubt that he was a regular customer, I do question his concept of the passage of time. We waited in line for over 2 hours. It could have been the fact that we were famished from the long wait, but I will confess that the food was fantastic. The chicken tasted like it was dipped in liquid gold and deep fried to perfection. The mashed potatoes were like little fluffy clouds covered in creamy gravy. The biscuits came wrapped in a swaddling cloth napkin, lying in a basket. In short, the food was heavenly.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the large man on the scooter who was in front of us in line. If you hadn't misled to us about the length of the wait, we never would have been able to enjoy that amazing food. So for lying to us, we give you thanks.

On Saturday morning Amber and I woke up at the crack of dawn to have breakfast with my sister, Julie. Our bellies were still bulging from the dinner the night before, so we went back to the house after breakfast to sleep it off. That evening, the family went out to dinner (again). Instead of the greasy (but delicious) fried food we had the night before, we decided to do something healthier. We went to Lucille's BBQ Restaurant. (I didn't say how much healthier it was, did I?) I had the brisket. Amber had the ribs. (See picture)

We flew home Sunday night and returned to our normal life. It was a great weekend with family and friends and were very thankful to be able to spend time with them. We love going to California but we also love coming home to Dallas. We look forward to the day when the Volbeda clan will hopefully move to Texas and we can have a Turkey Day, Texas Style!

=MV=