The Love Show!

Thanksgiving, in my not-so-humble, clearly biased opinion, was a complete win. Melissa and I offered to host pretty much right after we settled on the house, knowing that we'd have most of our stuff in place well before Turkeypalooza, and that we've pulled together plenty of big tah-dah's (as Melissa calls them) over the years...with considerably less space and far less help from guests with the whole food-making thing.

A common response we'd get, upon someone's learning that we planned to host Thanksgiving a mere 5 days after moving our furniture into the house was, "You're crazy." Others gave us escape routes, offering to take over if we reconsidered. But, this was kind of like the culmination of the entire moving process. Thanksgiving was our goal, something that kept us motivated and helped us stick to our planned work schedule during the weeks leading up to The Big Move (TM).

All the doubters clearly underestimated our ability to pull off events (thanks, in large part, to Melissa's top-notch planning and time management skills), and probably didn't realize how little we'd actually have to cook for the big dinner.

As several relatives had already been assigned side dishes, appetizers, desserts and drinks, Miss and I only had to cook the turkeys (we picked up two), corn and green beans w/ bread crumbs. We also bought 4 cheeses for a psuedo fancy-pants cheese tray, and Miss cut those up early in the day.


Queen of the Cheese-Cutters

The 4,000 cans of gravy we picked up pretty much heated up just sitting in a pot on top of the stove.

Anyway, Miss timed it all out, and we ended up eating shortly after 5, which was the time we'd planned on starting dinner. We had everything necessary for a perfect Thanksgiving dinner and more.

I, for the most part, stayed out of the way in the kitchen. Melissa and I have been through this many times before - it's best if I only show up when I'm asked to come in and perform a specific task. I cleaned, stuffed (not w/ "stuffing," as that's kind of inviting a bacteria party...but, rather, with flavor-imparting apples, onions and carrots) and gently, lovingly massaged butter and spices on to the turkeys. I washed dishes/cleaned the counters to help keep the cooking areas clear and ready for the next round of prep work. I opened wine bottles.

I drank a few glasses of wine. (Not a chore, actually. But I did.)

Otherwise, I'd just be in the way, in there. Melissa's grandmother, mom and sister took care of a majority of the cooking/heating duties. I'm far more useful talking up guests and making sure people have drinks/enough appetizers. I also assisted on a few tours of the house for relatives who hadn't seen it, yet.

So, y'know...I played social butterfly and changed to the next football game when the time came.


Bry woke up ready for football. Go, ' Boys!

Bryan loved the cheese tray. He stuffed himself with gouda, jarlsberg and sharp chedder, not to mention a few handfuls of craisins and some sesame crackers.



He also refused to nap in the afternoon, but he was in a good mood, and the fam was happy to play with him, anyway.

In the end, we had 17 people (Melissa, Bryan and I included), one dog and one bunny in the house. I built two more chairs for our dining room set - which we'd purchased before leaving York - on Thanksgiving Eve. (We bought them before we moved, and they lived in a box in storage, until now. Who knows if we'd have ever found matching chairs, again? And 4 is, clearly, not enough.)

...we ended up being able to fit all but two people at the table.



Melissa's brother and his girlfriend sat behind us at the kitchen island. We even dimmed the lights and lit a candle for them. So, they had their own little VIP box seats. They were good sports, though.

Bryan was in his high chair, behind Melissa and me. But, two bites into his dinner, he got drowsy and passed out cold.


Splat...

Everyone laughed and awwww'd, then we turned around and dove into dinner.



Which was great.



Surrounded by our families, stuffed with tasty food and good wine, we had a pretty perfect holiday.

I couldn't think of a better way to warm the house than what went down here Thursday night.

I hope you had as good a holiday as we did, and that everyone who came enjoyed themselves.

We'd love to own Thanksgiving, so...hopefully, people were impressed/satisfied enough to let us make this an annual tradition. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's just food, family and football - a lazy day of pig-outs and parades and pumpkin pie.


Watching the parades (we flipped between the Philly parade and Macy's) with my little buddy.

It's been a crazy year. There were plenty of ups and downs, to be sure. But Thanksgiving is a chance to celebrate what you have and what you love.

Plus, the Cowboys won. And the Giants lost. So...perfection, top to bottom!

Now, on to the big birthday/Xmas month.

[Bring it, December!]

Happy Thanksgiving, United Statesian-type, fellow gluttons!

I love this holiday - perhaps most of all. We're hosting, at the new house, just days after moving our furniture into place.

We are not crazy. We just love cooking and having people over. Also, not having to drive anywhere.

So, this is a good holiday for us to own, and it'll be a memorable one in our new home.

Turkey, just for you:



And, to my vegetarian/vegan friends, my condolences. This must be a terribly difficult day for you.

Hope you like, um...football?

(I know. I've never met a vegetarian or vegan who likes football, either.)

Oh, well.

[EAT UP!]

Rain or shine.

All the time.

[]

I'm enjoying Glee, but it's just fluff. There's no real drama, no real suspense.

But, that's okay. FOX has another season of tension-filled music contestary coming this January, when American Idol returns.

Doubt how intense that show really is?

Or maybe you've forgotten.

Check out this classic moment:



[SEACREST...OUT!]

Really, The Onion?

Twice in one dopey sentence?

Really?!

Yeesh.

You're my favorite news source. Please, don't become like the others and bombard me with poor quality!