Thanksgiving in a Garden

This year I am thankful that our friends invited us to join them for a Thanksgiving feast at Longwood Gardens.

We dined in the conservatory ballroom.

It was nothing short of magical.  So old and beautiful.  I kept thinking of all of the life stories and past experiences that must have occurred in this breath taking room. Even if the food had been terrible, the atmosphere was worth the price of admission. Of course the food was not terrible in the least.  It was quite tasty.

There was a whole table devoted to soup.

The buffet had all of the traditional Thanksgiving fare.  The turkey was delicious, especially with the quince cranberry sauce.

I'm not one for sweet potatoes with all of the marshmallows and such. Usually they are either too sweet or there is too much cinnamon, but the sweet potatoes at the buffet were amazing.  I could have eaten a whole plate of them.  The only disappointment was the mashed potatoes, but, not to brag, I make some mean goat cheese mashed potatoes, so I thought the buffet potatoes were just okay.

There was a whole table, beautifully decorated, covered with desserts.

They put a fancy twist on pumpkin pie.

The company during the meal wasn't bad either.

One of the best parts about having Thanksgiving at Longwood Gardens, other than dining is a gorgeous ballroom, is to be the first to see the holiday garden displays. After all of that food we were up for some walking.

One year, we went to the gardens during a Saturday in December.  It was so crowded we were walking shoulder to shoulder with people through the conservatory.  On Thanksgiving most of the people were other buffet diners so the crowd was pleasantly light.

Of course we had to make a visit to the newly crowned #1 Bathroom in America. It definitely deserves the title.

The garden, both indoors and out, was aplenty with resplendent Christmas trees.

The youngest member of our group seemed to have a good time.  She made a friend.

Enjoyed the dollhouse dining room as much as I did,

and was delighted to watch Thomas whirl around the train tracks that were made extra festive do to the recent snowfall.

Our dinner was early in the afternoon so we had to do a bit of walking around while we waited for the sky to grow dark.  Finally it was dark enough and the garden was aglow.

We stopped by to watch the fountains perform their dance,

then with our fingers, toes, and noses sufficiently frosted, we ended the night with a cup of hot chocolate,

or in the case of one of our party, just a few mini marshmallows.

If we could have, we would have secured our reservation for next Thanksgiving. Although I can't vividly remember every Thanksgiving I have ever experienced, I have to say that this year ranked up there as one of the best Thanksgivings I have ever had. The company was lovely, the food yummy, and the atmosphere spectacular.