Thanksgiving Palooza

Happy leftovers day!  Seriously. I love Thanksgiving because there is always a massive amount of delectable food ready for round 2.  I feel like this Thanksgiving was like a marathon.  Except, it was quite enjoyable.  If you have something that you actually need to be doing I suggest you hit the little X at the top of the page because I am about to lay down the play by play of my Thanksgiving Palooza.  And it is painfully long...See the picture above?  Beautiful.  This is where I spent my turkey day.  I'm getting ahead of myself though. My Thanksgiving day began at 7:56 a.m.  I woke up just in time to get ready before my ride came to get me.  This year I did a little something out of my normal character.  I did the Gobble Wobble.  It's a sweet little 5K run downtown.  123% better than the bridge run. No lie.  I had so much fun.  Plus I went with the DuPre fam which is always fun.  Now I did more of a run/walk which I guess would be considered a "wobble" in this arena.  They ran.  Fast.  It was so beautiful out.  I wobbled across the finish line and headed back to Mt. Perfect.

Once home I took a nice long shower.  Because I may or may not have been a little sore.  Seriously, I am getting old now a days.... I got ready lightning quick and headed toward Edisto. Quite possibly the most beautiful place ever.  Once in the car and on my way I realized that the shirt that I grabbed from the dryer was not 100% dry. If I had to put a number on it, I would say it was about 63% dry.  Lovely.  I was feeling a bit soggy.  So then I put the windows down and turned up the tunes and headed south.  Who doesn't love a little air drying while in transit.  Plus I had a rockin cd in.  I got on the island at about 1 and headed straight to Brickhouse to meet the fam.  Brickhouse is on Edisto and it is beautiful.  Here are a few pics:

In all seriousness, it is beautiful.  You can't be surrounded by such a beautiful landscape and not be thankful.  Now Brickhouse is not your typical little family gathering.  It's more like a massive family reunion.  Here is a pic of our small little family gathering:

I would like to take a minute and set the scene for you.  Here is the dining arena:

Who would not want to share a Thanksgiving meal at this table:

And food is never in short supply at this place:

Now to survive here you have to make quick decisions.  No hesitating.  The line moves fast and you don't want to be the one to hold it up.  I also think line choice is key.  There are two sides.  It's important to scout out the spread early so you know what side to commit to...but that's just my opinion.  This truly was one of my favorite Thanksgivings.  If you don't know them already (which most of you do), let me introduce you to the Sass fam:

This is Lili.  My sister.  Younger sister. She can be funny at times.  More funny than not actually.  We are very different, but I have definitely come to appreciate it.  Well, there she is.  Here is one more. (with her beloved car...which I like to call the rust bucket and you have probably seen it about the town)

Here is Ginny (Mom), Lili and Aunt Vickey (her new haircut is just like Pink's) Sidenote: Mom and Vickey look so much a like nowadays.  Crazy.  Plus, mom is funny when her and Vickey are together:)

Here is Herb (Dad).  He's pretty much a keeper if you ask me. Or anyone really....

Here is Uncle Doug and Anne.  They are pretty cool too.  Sadly the other Sass kids weren't there.

The Sass men:

Just look at them.  Who wouldn't love them.  They really are 2 of the best people I know.
The Sass Women:

Not gonna lie...we have a good time.  And we tend to crack ourselves up.  All the time.
Here we are all together....it only took about 25 shots to get one where we all just happened to be looking at the camera...

Here are my employers (Dad and Burk).  Or bosses if you will.    I have named them the founding fathers..

Cousin Doug wasn't there (he is in Montana) I found his stand in:

So I have a little Thanksgiving tradition.  After our glorious and disgustingly filling meal, I like to stop by a few other venues....I added a new one this year.  My friend, Susalee, is just right down the road so I stopped by to say hello.  She loves Edisto too.  And she can tell you some really really really cool stuff about it.  So I stopped by and just couldn't help but take a few pics....It just happened to be sunset....and a beautiful one at that..

I am pretty sure that I could live a good little life in the shack.  The view is not too bad....

After that I headed to Dawhoo to see the Smythe cousins.  They always seem to have a good time.  I said my hellos and goodbyes and headed over to Russell Creek to see Nanny, Poppa and the Wags. Plus all of their cousins.  Now right about this time, they are getting ready to eat.  Perfect timing huh?  It's a rough day when you have to eat Thanksgiving lunch and dinner.....After dinner we decided that it was only natural to go midnight shopping at Tanger outlets.  Now if you know me, then you know that normally this would make my palms sweat and induce a mild panic attack.  I am not exactly a shopper, but my adrenaline was pumping and succumbed to peer pressure....So we headed out.  Along with about 1,235,765,239 other people.  Crazy people.  The line to get in the parking lot was intense. You had to be aggressive and ballsy to have a chance of getting a spot within 34.9 miles of the place.  We got lucky and made it in.  As soon as my feet hit the pavement, mild panic began to set in.  There may have been some hyperventilation also...not sure.  People everywhere.  It was like a stampede.  I immediately regretted the decision.  But it was too late so I put my game face on.  The girls are big shoppers so I have picked up a few tips over the years.  I headed straight for the Nike store to get some new kicks.  After what felt like 3 hours I finally decided on a pair and entered the 54 mile long check out line.  (Here is where I ran into my good friend Shaun Wahl).  Shaun was kind enough to wait in line with me.  He knows that I am not a shopper. I think he was quite shocked that I was on the Tanger premises...After I made my purchase, I was about to reach my retail threshold, so I went and got the keys.  I headed back to the car and took a nice little nap until the girls got back to the car.  I got home at about 3:30 a.m.  I don't know if midnight shopping is my thing.  However, it was an experience.  At least there was good company:)  All in all, I had an awesome Thanksgiving.  Here are a few more pics from the day:

So there you have it. Turkey Palooza 2010.  If you are reading this, then we are most likely good friends.  And that being said-I am very thankful for you.  I hope you had a really great Thanksgiving.  

Go team Pilgrim,

Sass