Thanksgiving is two weeks away in the US. Its my favorite holiday by a long shot. Going hunting with my dad and brother the weekend before and to a delicious wild game dinner. Since the wife and I split up holidays, we will be hanging with my family this year. My mom's cooking is generally okay, but she brings her A-game when it comes to Thanksgiving and I cant wait to famish myself and fall asleep in front of the wood stove. My mom is not much of a drinker, so on Thanksgiving I try to get her drunk. I made a pretty rad Thanksgiving punch: -Half liter of vodka -1/4 cup of brandy -1/2 gallon of apple cider -1 bottle of sparkling cider -Orange slices -Smashed cranberries Focus: What are your plans? Alt Focus: What are some delicious recipes we should know about? (which we do annually).
Silly American. Thanksgiving was weeks ago. Does UFC 206 count as a holiday? Because I'm planning that right now. It's in Toronto and some friends are flying in. I'm debating - do we watch it as a party somewhere cool, or do we go and see it live? If we see it live, it'll be tough to actually see the fight. But with people flying in maybe the energy is worth it? I don't know. The actual holidays are also in the works. So far: Christmas Eve - Open house at my aunt's. So excited because both twins (my cousins) are flying in. Christmas Day - Immediate family at my mom's. Boxing Day - Big family to-do at my other aunt's. New Year's Eve or Day - My house for a dinner/party. It's pretty cool to be living close to family. It's a luxury I've never had as an adult.
I've been to three UFCs. Unless you are in the lower part of the lower bowl or closer you will be watching it on whatever big screen is in the arena. The atmosphere is better, but I find the product as a whole to be better at home (similar to football). This was several years ago, so I'm not sure if they still do this. If there is a quick end to a fight the arena sits quiet for the next 30 minutes while they show and talk about a fight from the under card. You can't see all that well. But you will be with 15k fans cheering, and there is something to say for that. I have no idea what kind of fans will come out in Torronto. In Ohio and Tennessee I was practically the only one not wearing cammo. I expected a bunch of bros in tapout gear. What I got was more of a monster truck crowd. Have fun!
This Thanksgiving will be a first for me, actually going out for the meal. I usually host it. It is probable that this will be my father's last round of holidays, and so we have perhaps 30 people heading in to celebrate with him. To handle that size of a crowd, we arranged a private room elsewhere, and will be fed there. It's pragmatic, but feels weird.....too many years of me cooking a turkey, I suppose. There is a very real movement to do a SECOND Thanksgiving at home over the weekend. Leftovers for days, all that. Feels like a win/win to me, so I am in favor.
Easiest and most deadly holiday punch in the world: - 1 bottle apple cider - 1 bottle champagne - grenadine to taste Multiply the ingredients until you fill whatever punch bowl or (like us) water cooler you have. Leaving our party half of the people made it to their cars without falling down. And about a quarter of them needed assistance getting there.
For Thanksgiving, my parents are coming (in their RV) from Kansas to spend the weekend with us and then going down to visit more relatives in GA. It's going to be a bit awkward. I mentioned on here awhile back that my husband and I are splitting, but it's amicable. We are at the final stages of everything, house is under contract to close Dec 15, I'm about to sign a lease on an apartment as soon as we hash out the inspection results with the buyers. We're both going to still be here in the house that weekend and I'm sure my parents aren't going to know how to act. Can't say I blame them, it is an unusual situation. We're going to be going out to dinner for Thanksgiving, so that pressure's off. Anyway, once that is over with, I'll be moving into my new place. My daughter is with me for Thanksgiving and will be with her dad (from 1st marriage, not current one) on Christmas so I will be completely by myself during that holiday. I'm an introvert, so it doesn't bother me at all. I will probably make a just-for-me spread of goodies and drinks and have fun watching the first Doctor Who episode to air since a year ago.
There isn't even real liquor in that. You basically made an apple mimosa. What kind of light weights do you hang out with?
I'll be at my parents place for Thanksgiving with the rest of my family joining and then with ms. katokoch's family in Kansas City for Christmas. The latter will be a first, since I've always been in my hometown for Christmas too, but now we're juggling holidays with siblings. I organize a Black Friday pheasant hunt with buddies and may be hunting again in Western Kansas after Christmas too, we'll see, either way I think that pheasant hunt could be called a tradition now. As usual I'll grill a bacon-wrapped venison loin for the family and may try curing a rump cut to make venison ham this year too. I'm anticipating the grilled turkey and my mom's dinner rolls, nothing compares to them. I don't have any drink recipes aside from opening up my brother's homebrews and getting into my dad's good scotch.
Thanksgiving is absolutely my favorite holiday. We'll be spending it at home. I cook all of the traditional food and do not try anything new. They say the holidays are not a time to try new things rather stick with your tried and true recipes. I don't know who "they" are but it makes sense to me. I don't do anything funky. I once watched Paula Deen put cut up giblets IN HER GRAVY. WTF? That's just gross and wrong. Anyway, we'll wear whatever we want. We'll get to watch all of the football we can and the almost best part this year is I'm off work from the 23rd through the 28th. PS If The Oven Fixer Guy can fix my oven quickly and as cheap as possible I'd be forever grateful. No one needs Turkey Stress on Turkey Day.
When i bought my(only dating the wife at the time) house it had probably the original gas stove it in, so my parents gave me there old one. Year and a half later we had our first Thanksgiving. The igniter died while mid way through cooking the turkey.
How many people got Diabetes? Also, that sounds like a hangover from HELL. FOCUS: Red dot away, but I'm not a huge fan of Thanksgiving. I say it every year and people gasp. Turkey is one of my least favorite proteins, I don't love gravy, and my Aunt who usually hosts Thanksgiving made mashed potatoes out of a box and sliced canned cranberry. You do a variation on Thanksgiving with different foods? I'd be all in. This year, Thanksgiving will be different, as said Aunt and her piece of shit son (my only cousin on that side) decided to pick a fight with my Mom over nothing during the last year, so we will be having Thanksgiving at my parents house with just them and my sisters. We'll be able to dictate more of the menu and it should be pretty dope. We also have a second Thanksgiving, the Saturday after, with my Dad's side of the family which is usually beef and pork tenderloin, various salads, and red skinned garlic mashed potatoes. Thats a day I'm more down with. Other problem, Thanksgiving in the Great Lakes region is always seemingly the "fuck you, here comes winter hell" predecessor.
I drank a lot in college. I'm not bragging that I was a heavy weight and could drink anyone under the table. Just, I drank way more alcoholic beverages, both quantity and type, than I should have. For reference, one weekend, a buddy and I bought some stuff (Bull of the Woods) that we chose because we couldn't afford the Mad Dog. Yeah. Anyway, I think I've mentioned this before, but we had a morning mixer and started playing chandeliers with mimosas. That was one of the all time worst drinking decisions I made, including when I bought Bull of the Woods. Horribly, horribly drunk, but delayed* and horribly, horribly hung over. Yuck. So, when drinking any sweet stuff with champagne hidden in it, extreme caution is advised. *The delay ended during one of my upper level classes that met in a conference room with about 8 people. I got up in the middle of class, walked out and started puking in the lab sink across the hall.
This year I'll once again be hosting a nomad Thanksgiving at the house with a few others for anyone that has nowhere else to go for the holiday. I'll be up early to smoke the turkey as usual then get shitfaced throughout the day eating and watching football since I have nowhere else to be and don't work the next day. The only non-traditional (at least to everyone outside of my family) thing that I make for dinner is my grandmothers Italian wedding soup. Even though it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, she always made it for dinner, so now I have to make it too, otherwise the regular guests that do show up at my house get angry. As far as recipes, instead of doing the traditional stuffing in a big pan, I make the stuffing mixture like I usually do, but then portion it out into a muffin tin, making individual stuffin' muffins. That way everybody gets some that has both the soft moist bits, as well as the brown crunchy part.
Yay, Thanksgiving! I'm working, but I don't mind. I get nicely paid, some of my friends will be there to make it somewhat fun, and I'll make it to dinner by 4. A bonus is that I get out of my MIL's and waltz into my parents' just in time to eat. My mom's food is amazing. It's nothing super fancy...just traditional Thanksgiving food. I love it.
Thanksgiving, a time for me to remember how dysfunctional my parents are and why I pretend like my mom doesn't exist. Can't wait to get back to San Diego and see her doped up on meds by about 630, glassy eyes, trying to start fights. God I miss home.
we are road tripping for thanksgiving and doing a dinner with The Husband's family. Then up to the PNW. Christmas will be interesting as we will have just moved into our new home.