I always enjoy holidays on the soaps and although this wasn’t the best Thanksgiving we’ve ever seen on OLTL, it was pretty interesting.

The best part of the holiday was Charlie surprising Viki with his Llanview version of the Bon Jour Café. And of course, what else would it be called but The Buenos Dias Café? It certainly was a labor of love for Charlie and Viki was overwhelmed when he told her that he built it just for her.

It was nice seeing them at the booth where they met when things were very simple and hearing Charlie say that Viki’s smile was the prettiest smile he’d ever seen. Of course with the upsetting day she had, she could only reply, “Yes, now you know pretty much everything about me and simple I’m not.” Charlie couldn’t have had a better response to that than, “but you still have the prettiest smile.”

It was great to see Moe, Noelle and Gigi show up as Charlie’s other surprises for Viki. I guess TPTB finally listened to the fans just a little bit because there are so many people who didn’t want to see the last of these characters and using an idea that many fans had when Dorian first sampled Moe’s bouillabaisse back in Paris, Texas, Moe and Noelle will be working for Dorian. Now that should be a riot! Maybe it will even help Moe fulfill his dream of dotting the map with Bon Jour Cafes.

At least Charlie finally got a big hug from Viki when everyone from all over town started showing up at the diner and Charlie told her that he’s trying to learn from the past and wants them to find a way to start over. Good for him.

He and Viki both deserve a little happiness at this point.

Elsewhere in Llanview, Thanksgiving wasn’t such a success (which is why everyone wound up at the diner.) Dorian unsuccessfully tried to push a gourmet dinner on her family that was suspiciously missing the turkey but had fancy duck instead. Poor Dorian can never get it right, can she? That lame Thanksgiving dinner was her way of trying to give her family a little joy during an otherwise tragic time for them. And over at Sarah and Layla’s place, things weren’t much better. Talia made the mistake of trusting a very upset Sarah with the information that Ray claimed he was innocent of killing his wife and that Vanessa set him up. I’ll bet no one trusts Sarah with a secret ever again because she downed a bunch of booze and didn’t hesitate to get up at the dinner table and spill the news about Ray accusing Vanessa. Oops, there went the Vega’s Turkey Day. Thank goodness again for the diner.

We certainly can’t forget Thanksgiving at the Buchanan mansion. I was sorry to see a Thanksgiving go by with Nora staying out of the kitchen. It’s usually so much fun even though no edible food ever comes out of the fiasco. But never fear when Nora arranges a meal. The caterer’s truck just happens to go slip sliding into Asa’s moat and there went Thanksgiving dinner. Charlie sure saved a lot of families that day by finishing that diner.

It was good to see Renee again. We don’t ever see enough of her. Just as she was toasting the family for the holiday, Natalie and Jared show up and Jared knew he might not be welcome, telling Renee he’d leave if she wanted him to. Sure enough, Natalie piped up saying that if Jared left, she’d go with him and Renee decided to forgive and forget warning Jared that he’d better be good to Natalie. Well, what did you expect? Renee forgave Asa about 100 times and married him about 10 times, LOL, so forgiving Jared was a no-brainer. I did love her final words to Jared when she said, “You may not be a Buchanan, but you sure as hell behave like one.” That’s for sure.

The day wasn’t going so well for Starr, who felt the need to confront her father and wound up going to Todd’s hospital room. She only had one question on her mind and that was, “Were you really planning to steal my baby?” I feel sorriest for Starr because after all she’s been through; the bottom line for her is to wonder if her father truly loves her and if so, how could he do what he did? True to his self-serving personality, Todd tried every way he could to avoid answering that question but Starr persisted until he had to admit it. But of course, Todd had to rationalize the whole things by saying it started out as him being miserable over losing contact with his kids and not being able to stand Marcie getting Starr’s baby after she ran away with Sam and held Viki hostage. He deserved the worst punishment for sitting there and so horribly lying to Starr when he told her that he was going to go away and raise the baby until Starr got older and was ready to raise the baby herself and then he would bring her back and turn her over to Starr. What a nasty liar! I’m getting pretty tired of Todd telling everyone how he fell in love with Marty. It’s just sickening and he’s making himself look insane as well as a criminal. Starr said it all when she looked at him and said, “You don’t know what love is” and then walked out on him.

That was a bad experience for Starr because deep down she really wanted confirmation that her father loved her and she didn’t get it from him. She did get it from Viki though when they bumped into each other at the nursery. Starr was so upset and since Viki had already seen Todd, she completely understood. Viki did manage to make Starr understand that no matter what Todd has done, he does love her and always has. Starr needed to hear that, even if Todd’s way of showing love is a very sick way.

It was heartbreaking to watch as Starr held the baby she believes is Jessica’s when if fact that was her baby, Hope. This is a lot of tragedy for a 16-year old girl to handle.