Brave Thanksgiving

It was a gorgeous, sunny day, probably in the mid-50s, when I got up this morning. I started this gorgeous (but not too warm, like last year) Thanksgiving with cereal and several shorter Thanksgiving specials. In "Max's Thanksgiving," Ruby tries to decorate Grandma's table while keeping Max's paws out of the stuffing. Jon has a similar problem with Garfield in Garfield's Thanksgiving, as he tries to keep his cat on a diet and romance Liz the Veterinarian. When Peppermint Patty invites herself, Franklin, and Marcie to Charlie Brown's for dinner in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Chuck and Linus make a dinner of toast and jelly beans to appease them. Peppermint Patty gets upset...until Linus and Marcie remind their friends of the real history behind the holiday. The Mayflower Voyagers covers Thanksgiving history as the Peanuts play Pilgrim children who deal with the hardship of the Pilgrims' trip to America and their arrival.

I was surprised to hear my cell phone ring towards the end of Mayflower Voyagers. For possibly the first time in her entire life, Rose had gotten an early start and was on her way to pick me up for our trip to Mom and Dad's! Fortunately, the Peanuts were winding down. All I need was to pull on my shoes, socks, and ankle wrap, put the DVD away, grab the bread for Mom, and head out.

Probably thanks to the lovely day, there was no traffic whatsoever on the way to Cape May County. It was Rose, Khai, me, and Kelsey the Miniature Pincher - Rose's boyfriend Craig had to work at a local country club. The worst thing that happened the entire way down was Rose kept yawning (she had felt a touch of Khai's stomach flu and hadn't slept well), and she and I kept having to push little Kelsey in the back seat. (The last time she rode with us down to Cape May County, she tried to climb into Rose's lap while she was driving. We didn't want a repeat of that.) We made a quick stop at a WaWa about half-way, where Rose used the bathroom and bought two pretzels for all of us to share. Kelsey climbed into my lap and looked around for her mommy.

We arrived at Mom and Dad's around 11:30. Mom, Dad, and Skylar (my sister Anny's 8-year-old son) were already there, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Anny herself showed up a bit later. She's a manager at Big Lots in North Cape May and could only stay for a few hours. (She got the Black Friday midnight shift, poor kid.)

Today was far quieter than previous Thanksgivings. Rose and I took the little boys into the back yard to run around, and around the neighborhood for a walk. Skylar rode his beloved scooter. Rose pulled Khai in his cousins' big red Radio Flyer wagon. (That thing is awesome. It's not only metal, like ours when we were little, but it's probably twice the size of ours.) Skylar wanted to show us all his favorite places in the development where Mom and Dad live. We got a little lost going home, but we finally made it about 20 minutes before meal time.

We had dinner at 2. It was delicious, as usual. Mom makes the best Thanksgiving meals. We had the traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole, plus sweet potato casserole, carrots, cranberry sauce, and whole wheat roles. Anny left shortly after that. Mom loaded the dishwasher while the rest of us settled back to watch movies.

We caught Phineas and Ferb In the 2nd Dimension on the Disney Channel earlier in the day. In this direct-to-TV movie, everyone's favorite summer-loving kid inventors accidentally transport themselves to the aforementioned second dimension. Here, Doofensmirtz is the mad dictator he thinks he is, he has a robotic Perry that does his bidding, and Candace is leading the resistance and trying to protect her brothers. Not to mention, the original Phineas and Ferb have found out that Perry is Agent P! When Evil Doofensmirtz' robots break through to Phineas and Ferb's world, they have to band together with Perry's fellow agents and the kids of the town to prove that every kid in the Tri State Area is pretty darn good at busting when they're given the chance.

Someone put on Brave after dinner. I've been dying to see this movie for ages, even before I bought my Merida toddler doll in June, and I wasn't disappointed. Merida (Kelly McDonald) is a princess in medieval Scotland. Though she loves her prim mother Elinor (Emma Thompson), she's really a daddy's girl at heart (Billy Connolly). Her problems with her mother come to a head when Elinor announces a competition among clans for Merida's hand. Merida's furious...and well she should be, given the nerdy idiots who are being shoved into the contest by their chieftain fathers. She joins the competition and wins her own hand. After mother and daughter rashly destroy the things that mean the most to them, Merida rides off into the woods. She encounters a woodcarving witch (Julie Christie) who gives her the means to make her mother understand...but it's not at all what she or Elinor expect...

From the drop-dead gorgeous animation, Pixar's best to date, to the plot's blending of the commonplace and the extraordinary, I absolutely loved this. Feisty Merida is unique among Disney ladies (and Pixar ones, too). She has no use for romance; there's no prince waiting for her. She's perfectly happy with her family and on her own, doing her own thing, thank you. This may be the only animated film I've ever seen deal with a fairly realistic relationship between mother and daughter as well. It's also one of the few Disney or Pixar films with no villains whatsoever. Even the big bear who attacked Merida's family and the witch who provides the spell aren't set up as evil.

My big caveat is that this is one hundred and ten percent a woman's film. While not as pink and sugary as most Disney Princess films are assumed to be, it deals with woman-oriented issues that many guys just aren't likely to understand or relate to. Merida's prank-loving triplet brothers and Connolly and the chieftains provide needed comedy, but they're not the whole show. Some may consider Merida's wildness to be obnoxious or find the whole thing to be on the dull side.

I still highly recommend this for Pixar fans (who will find this a welcome rebound from the so-so Cars 2), fans of stunning animation, and ladies of all ages looking for a princess film where the princess has more on her mind than fancy dresses, princes, and glass shoes.

Between movies, we caught the afternoon football game between the Texans and the Detroit Lions, including the half-time Kid Rock concert. The Lions were winning when we were watching, but the Texans eventually came back and beat them in overtime, 34-31. 

We had dessert during Brave. Mom brought out her classic pumpkin and apple pies, along with chocolate chip bar cookies. Rose brought a Tiramisu mousse and fruit tart from Wegman's. I had slices of the pumpkin pie and mousse with canned whipped cream, and they were both delicious. There were so many leftovers, Mom loaded Rose and me up with plastic containers of potatoes, turkey, carrots, pie, and mousse to bring home.

We finally headed out around quarter of 5. Rose isn't crazy about driving in the dark, and she wanted to get her son home and into bed. Neither Khai nor Kelsey were too happy on the ride home. Khai fussed until we got onto the highway; he passed out somewhere around Dennisville, only to wake up again 20 minutes before we got into Audubon. Kelsey kept trying to get up front again, though she was generally quieter on the way home than she was on the trip there.

I ran a few last Thanksgiving items when I got in. Balki and Larry try to retrieve Jennifer's ring from a turkey Balki sold to a local family in the season 7 episode "Wild Turkey." The Three Stooges are English convicts who are sent "Back to the Woods" in the Colonies, where they romance three pretty Pilgrim lasses and chase local Indians. Mickey is "The Grocery Boy" in a rare black and white Disney short. He brings Minnie her dinner and even helps her cook, but finds himself chasing after Pluto when he steals the turkey!

Oh, and for all of you who celebrated it today, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had an equally enjoyable meal with the people you love.