A belated Happy Thanksgiving to y'all! 

I'd say it's probably my favorite Holiday, I just love this time of the year with it's cooler temperatures,  it's Fall colors, all the decorations and, of course, the food!
As usual, we had more than enough of the latter! Like last year, the owners of the campground, Roy and Nita, took care of deep-frying twelve (!) Turkeys and the rest of us brought the side-dishes, potluck style.

One thing was obvious, there were a lot less people than last year! The recent floods have hit people hard, some lost their houses, some lost their RV's, some had to sell their RV's and some have decided to move to a different campground (one that doesn't flood).

Nevertheless, a good time was had by all. The weather was great, and there was enough food for firsts, seconds and left-overs!
We tried not to overeat and somewhat succeeded ...

         

(that jolly lady on the right is Nita, she broke her ankle two weeks ago, when she stepped off the bottom step of her RV steps ... go figure!)

As is 'our' tradition, we watched the Macy's Parade and the Ukanuba Dog Show on the tube and had a nice relaxing day ..



And than comes the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the start of the crazy Christmas (shopping) season!
All the fall decorations immediately disappear and right away the Christmas lights and trees are popping up everywhere.

So, at noon on Saturday, while in this kind of Holiday spirit, Hidden Oaks had an important visitor ...

 

♪ You better watch out, you better not cry ♫ ... yup, the 'Big Guy' arrived 'in town'!

                  

The children got their first presents. Knowing how much is spent on presents by the average household each year, it will most likely not be their last!

To work off some of the food we ate, we decided to visit the gardens of the LSU Agricultural Research Station here in Hammond for an afternoon stroll.

It is literary 'around the corner' from us, less than 5 minutes away, and although we'd wanted to go there since last year, we never made it.

This is not the most interesting time to visit of course. 
There's not much growing or flowering anymore, but the grounds are very pleasant to stroll through in any season. A few trees still showed some fall colors and the first of the early Camellias were starting to bloom ...

           

This is actually a Hollyhock, but it's not like anyone's paying attention ...

Look at the size of these Camellias! They grow like weeds down here!               

And these heavy bearing citrus trees are Satsuma Mandarins ...

They are absolutely delicious, very sweet, incredibly juicy, seedless and easy-peeling, and everybody's favorite here in the south!

Flanking the entrance to the gardens are two beautiful, 100-year-old, humongous, Live Oak trees.

Both are 'members' of the Louisiana Live Oak Society. To obtain membership one must have a girth of 8 feet or more and one must be  ... an oak!

 

   

The Live Oak Society is a registry of over 7,500 notable live oak trees found throughout the South. The LSU Research Station has seven registered live oaks with seven more in-waiting of which 5 are 'centenarians' (more than 100 years old).
The southerners do love their Oaks, and rightfully so, they're just amazing!

James is doing a lot better by the way, at least he can walk upright again, although he still needs to move slow and take some painkillers, especially towards the end of the day, when he gets tired.
He's trying to keep himself busy, organizing paperwork (taxes!), trying to restore my crashed and infected computer (%$#@!), doing some small 'honey-do-list projects and watching Hallmark-Holiday movies ... (yeah, that's pretty sad)

In between the cooking and baking, I'm trying to finally finish knitting some socks, whom I started about a year ago, and do a little spinning. 
On Sunday, after the walk, we watched the 'girls' play (LPGA) some amazing golf. 

While I was doing some spinning and thinking about what a lousy golfer I am in comparison, I had a thought ... they might play a lot better than I do ... but can they spin?!

Made me feel a lot better!

We spent the rest of the weekend eating all left-overs, together with the overnight-salad I made, and some mashed potatoes (southerners don't eat this, they have 'dirty-rice' instead). 

        

It's Merlins favorite time of the year .. Turkey! Yum! (just kiddin', he didn't get that whole leg)

I'd also baked a pumpkin-cheese cake and made some deviled eggs of course (no Holiday can be without them, according to James).

I'm so stuffed, I swear, I'll never eat again ... yeah, I know ... famous last words!

So, to 'keep my girly figure', I'm doing some extra rowing (while watching those Hallmark movies): 

(Especially since I see a lot of Christmas cookies etc. looming in the near future!)

♪ Row, row, row your boat ... ♫