Thanksgiving with the "out-laws"

River Ranch . . . located in sunny Florida, just a few short miles from Frostproof, about an hour south of Mickey Mouse Land. That's where we went for Thanksgiving. Keith and I sort of horned in on the LaRocco family's celebration. We stayed in Allie & Brian's bunk house with the screened-in porch and lots of ambience. Did I mention we were in sunny Florida? Except the sun kind of avoided that part of Florida, and most of the time it was in the 40's and 50's . . . 30 something one night. Brrrrr!!!!! Yep! No heat . . . but just in case it gets hot there (which it usually does) there's is A/C. These temperatures at night called for drastic measures . . . sleeping in my clothes. It was way too cold to put jammies on after the first two nights!

Aside from the weather, we had an absolute blast! I think I want to go at least twice a year, if not more! Forget the 13-hour ride down! (We won't talk about the ride back . . . yet.)

River Ranch is the perfect red-neck 4-wheelin' paradise! It was GREAT!! I've attached a few pictures to give you a peek. Everyone needs to go at least once in their lives! Really!

Barbie . . . is Chinese!?!?

Yep! She is! Barbie is Chinese! (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) And her closest friends are Indonesian and Malaysian; GI Joe is Chinese; Transformers are Chinese . . . you name it . . . they're extremely ethnically diverse! (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Who'd have thought it? I discovered this curiosity while shopping for my annual contribution for the Toys For Tots campaign at work. I thought, this year I'll buy a few more things, because living in an area with 22.5% unemployment, there's probably going to be less under the tree, if anything at all, for lots of little kids around here. But, I will only buy items made in the good ol' USA. This turned into quite an educational challenge. After 45 minutes of perusing the toy aisles of Walmart, I know one thing for sure - Americans make board games, and other types of games, like Operation. Great game, especially the Sponge Bob variety. (I would have liked to try that one, but of course, it's for someone else.) Maybe Americans like to think more, like to be challenged mentally, instead of having a doll or something to hold in our hands and act out with.
All of this led to a revelation: We could solve our economic woes by just making these foreign-made toys here in the good ol' USA. Yes, we could! By observing the spending habits of so many of today's parents, and their obsession with providing for their child's every whim, I've come to realize that no matter the cost - they're going to pay it! So, let's stop buying all the imported toys, make them here in Federal Recovery Act funded retrofitted currently-idle factories, and sell them to ourselves - plus export them to the newly-rich Chinese! We could turn this recession around in no time at all! Let's do it!