Holidays

So my friend Alyssa just blogged about holidays, and I wrote this book about them in her comments section. I realized that it is basically a blog post of its own, so what the heck. Here is a C&P of what I wrote there. Alyssa, stop reading here. There's really no need to see my rant twice.

With my family in NM, it's not like we have to worry about going back and forth on the actual holidays. :) Also, DH hates to fly, so clearly he won't be attending Thanksgiving with my parents any time soon. It's just such a short holiday that the only option for travel is air.

When I am with my parents though, my mom does the vast majority of the cooking though my dad and brother carve the turkey. She used to do 100 side dishes (exaggeration,) but we've come to realize that it is better to have a few that we all love and can enjoy rather than so many that we try to eat a little of each. This year the menu is: clam chowder for appetizer, green salad with bleu cheese, candied pecans, fresh pears and a pear vinaigrette, turkey, suffing and dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, cranberry pomegranate relish, Brussels sprouts with procutto and pine nuts, broccoli casserole, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple crisp, and that may be it. I'm sure I'm forgetting something though. When I write it all out, it doesn't look like a scaled down meal, but you should have seen those tables when I was a kid! Everything is from scratch too.

To be honest, I hate holiday meals with DH's family. The biggest reason is that they don't do anything from scratch. I mean, they make the turkey, but the potatoes are from a box, frozen green vegetables, boxed pies. You get the idea. If they have wine, it is pink. Blech.

Last year we were in town, but his grandma, the matriarch, didn't want to do turkey and his sister didn't want to drive in, so we took grandma out for Italian (her choice) on Wednesday and then met up with friends on Thanksgiving. It was awesome!

This year I'll be in NM and he'll meet his family in IL for their dinner. I'll be sad to be away from him, but I will not miss their meal. I hope when we move houses and no longer have the cat that we can host. Then I can be in charge and control the processed crap.

Christmas is still to be determined. But let's just say that their boxed crap doesn't hold a candle to my mom's ham, homemade potato gratin, and red wine poached pears. We'll be in town, but they never have a schedule until the last minute. My folks come to town on the 26th, so we'll at least have a second shot at it if the meal blows.