how to eat....

so labor day took us to florida to visit my parents. as we expected, a huge feast greeted us when we arrived. mom's kitchen gloriously scented with the finest italian feast. while drooling over my plate i reminded her she needed to tell me one more time - how do you make these magic meatballs? we go over the ingredients one more time - check, check, check, yup, I got the ingredients down but somehow the taste is not the same. i'll keep trying. my kids are the first to remind me these are not like grandmas. just. not. quite. i woke up to the smell of bacon. it smelled heavenly. mom announced over breakfast oh come now eat some more. i swear i need to eat salads for the rest of my life after this vacation. upon my insistence the remaining evenings took us to a variety of restaurants. the days remained filled with pancakes, and omelets and sandwiches stuffed with roasted peppers and piled high with meats and veggies. mom says dad is easy to please. you know he says "home is the best restaurant of all." we seemed to eat our way through trips to the pool, golfing, movies, shopping, starbucks runs, visiting friends, flea markets, manis, pedis, listening to music on the square, watching people dance and we were still eating. at one point the bell rang someone delivering cookies. not just any cookies, cookies stuffed with jam and nuts = heaven. so now we have the neighbors adding to the food frenzy. on the last day we ate again at home and i must agree dad is right there is no better restaurant than mom's kitchen. not. even .close. so today i have an empty stomach and a heart full of gratitude. but one last thought - it's a good thing they only weighed the bags on the trip home and not the passengers i can assure you we would have had to pay for overage.