Thanksgiving

T and I stayed in Southern California for Thanksgiving.  It was kinda rough for me because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  But it actually was just fine.  This is how we spent it:

We went to Zuma Beach in Malibu.  I had never been there, but T produced a commercial there a few weeks ago.  A picture he took with the mighty, mighty iphone at the shoot early in the morning:

The drive there was lovely.  You would never guess we were close to LA.  The road was so windy and beautiful as we went up the (small) mountain.  The houses on the side of the road were so crazy.  Some were brand new and huge and beautiful.  Some were seriously shacks.  Some looked like cabins.  All mixed together.  And we didn't see a single grocery store.  How do these people live?!

Most of the Malibu beaches are at the bottom of cliffs.  Like this:

 

 

It was 80 degrees at the beach so we hung out for a long while.  Even though the temperature was perfect on the sand, the Pacific Ocean was frigid so we only got in up to our thighs.  We spent most of our time lying on the warm sand.

There were some crazy ocean currents:

The view as we were leaving:

 

Then we had Thanksgiving dinner with the ward.  We drove through downtown, like we always do, to get to the church.  Except downtown looked SO different.  It was the golden hour.  Downtown usually looks like a dump (because it is) when you drive through it.  But it was just before sunset and the light was hitting the buildings and they were shimmering and reflecting and LA looked beautiful.  Like a movie.  It seriously made me gasp.  This is the first time I have used the words "downtown" and "beautiful" in the same sentence in reference to LA.

Anyway, the meal with the ward was fine.  We brought homemade pumpkin pie squares, key lime pie, and real whipped cream.  I ate a lot, but not enough to make me feel sick.  In other words, just the right amount for Thanksgiving.  Then we decorated the institute for Christmas.

It was strange to have Thanksgiving without the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (my cousin M helped with it this year!), the fat newspaper with all the ads, family, Miracle on 34th Street, family, five kinds of pie, three layer jello, family, games, and football.  But it was still a good day.  We have lots to be thankful for.

P.S.  I wish we had some shots of both of us, but T's little camera is broken and we can't take self-portraits with his nice big lens camera.