It was a good Thanksgiving this year

Every year, I link to this hopeful piece on messed up family dynamics and Thanksgiving, with the quiet hope that my experience with the extended family will be better.

Since last year was my worst ever, we went the road less traveled this time.

We ditched the yearly family drama over at the in-laws. We have been in San Diego, in the middle of a quiet and peaceful vacation.

Not only did we ditch the in-laws, we also didn't do the standard turista madness of trying to catch the many amusement attractions in the area.

Instead, we spent lots of time at the pool, and we saw the movie Happy Feet, which contains a bunch of delightfully subversive messages. Way to go and what a great way of seeding America's youth with messages about ecology, acknowledgement of the food chain, the consequence of overfishing the oceans, and tolerance of differences.

Delighted to know that American youth everywhere will get exposed to these so-called liberal ideas as they take in the cutest singing and dancing penguins ever seen.