But back to the feast. In spite of people who say "Oh, turkey. There's nothing to it." But you have to start several days ahead and the day of the feast is a minefield of timing all the various dishes. Our turkey breast was done way ahead of time as was the dressing which left a short period of heightened activity to get the sweet potatoes and the Brussel sprouts ready before the other stuff got cold.
And then comes the ultimate insult. After hours, or days, of preparation, it's all over in about 20 minutes! You wait and wait, nearly dying from the wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen, then you sit down and shovel the food into your mouth and almost instantly it's all over!
Next year, I think we'll either ignore the day all together or go to a restaurant for a lesser celebration.
As for all the artificial bonhomie . . .
And then there is the day after shopping, which actually began on Thanksgiving itself this year. I am not a shopper so I avoided the mass hysteria and downright nasty behavior by the crowds going for those one in a million sale items. But it certainly can leave a bad taste in one's mouth to observe the unruly crowds on television.
Bah! Humbug! Now we've got Christmas to get through.
We did a restaurant in Bend, OR this year. It was so much less stress and no mess to clean up. I'm voting for this every year.
ReplyDeleteWe all take a dish to the in-laws which makes it pretty quick, and doesn't overload any one cook. But we have just done the restuarant thing, too, and that works great. And shopping...yeah...they can count me out. I would get out today for love or money, I don't care how cheap TV's are. No way!
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congrats. you are the first bah humbuger of the season!
ReplyDeleteWe let our youngest son and his wife do all the work. But we did have to drive all the way down to south Phoenix and back. It was worth it though. We had a nice visit and a delicious meal, just the four of us. One year we went to the Grand Canyon for Thanksgiving at the El Tovar. I enjoyed that very much.
ReplyDeleteThe El Tovar trip sounds like a good one. I'm putting that on my bucket list!
ReplyDeleteI really get your point. Mrs. C. worked all day on that feast and twenty minutes after we sat down I couldn't take another bite. I guess my days of Olympic eating are over. And I was up all night popping tums. I remember in times past getting up at midnight and pulling everything out of the fridge for a snack. Those days are gone...not that my waistline is any smaller.
ReplyDeleteThis year I decided to get smart - I took a take-away box & filled that up first (since only some of the leftovers would be coming back to my Dad's house), then ate a smaller amount of food. But I still ate too much. Pretty much for four days. Right now I'm finally actually hearing my stomach rumble in hunger. And I'm just going to let it do that for a while before I eat anything!
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