Thanksgiving 2011: A Hot Mess

• November 26, 2011

Good morning! I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekends. I know I am. I have been so confused about the days, and nothing is better than that because that means I’m not at work the usual Monday-Friday. I can’t believe the holiday season is now truly upon us – or that it’s going to be 67 degrees today. SO GLAD that winter is holding off (for now).

I feel like I have so much to share. I have a couple events I attended over the last couple of weeks to recap, but first order of business is of course to tell everyone about Thanksgiving. And Black Friday…but that’ll come later.

I’ve started referring to this Thanksgiving as Black Thursday for the reason that I went a little overboard on wine before…during…and after dinner. Cabernet is DANGEROUSLY addicting! I’ll get the negative out of the way here and admit that I was super hard on myself about having too much wine, acting stupid, and being fuzzy on later parts of the evening. I lost track of my tolerance and felt so embarrassed, and also felt concerned over the alcohol. In these situations I often irrationally worry about how “bad” alcohol is said to be for you, how you “shouldn’t” have more than one drink per day, how “easily” things can become a habit, etc. All of those thoughts are messages that I think invade the minds of many women each day, thanks to how pervasive those topics are in the media, especially this time of year. I love fitness and health magazines, blogs, etc as much as the next girl (here I am writing my own), but I also wish there was more media literacy education out there to help people realize that indulgence isn’t the end of the world, and those articles they may read about all the bad parts of drinking never mention the other side of it – there’s nothing wrong with enjoying yourself every now and then. No one is perfect and I tend to beat myself up when situations like this make me see that I am not. I am not blaming the media for this, but I do know that plenty of little blurbs I’ve read in “Shape” and “Women’s Health” were popping up in my head Thursday night as I periodically woke up to chug water.

I certainly didn’t mean for this entry to start with me talking about media literacy and guilt over alcohol, but I find that kind of writing therapeutic. Anyone else have any thoughts they want to share? Now, let’s get to the good stuff, because I did have a great time throughout the evening at our family friends, the Gerbers’s, house.

Another family of friends, the Aubuchons, joined us at the Gerber house. All three of our families moved from Florida to CT thanks to the “men of the house” and their positions at Pratt & Whitney, and we have known each other since all of us kids were babies. It’s great that we have all moved together and can gather at special occasions throughout the years and grow up with each other.

Greg and Joe also came with my family, and I loved spending the evening hanging out with them. I hadn’t seen Greg in a few months, since I went to visit him in Boston (he goes to BU’s School of Law), and it’s always fun to see Joe.

The guys and I were all SO ready for dinner when we arrived, and the suspense before the meal was killing us. Joe even resorted to affectionately petting the fried turkey upon its arrival, and Greg pre-gamed dinner with one of the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that Megan made – turns out she’s a fan of How Sweet It Is too!

Some appetizers were set out for people to enjoy with drinks, including the famous Gerber buffalo chicken dip.

Before dinner, the family gathered around all of the food and said a prayer of thanks. Then we dove into everything buffet style – filled up plates in the kitchen, then brought them to the table.

Dinner was sooo good. I had: mashed potatoes, squash, turkey, stuffing, cranberry relish, green beans, sweet potato, and carrots. I didn’t really care for the cranberry relish, so I didn’t end up having more than a couple bites of that. Everything else was gone though. Joe, Greg, and I ended up being the only kids who invaded the “adult table” but we had fun!

After dinner, us “kids” went down to the basement, where shenanigans ensued.

And dessert was had, of course.

I may have had seconds of dessert. To be honest, I am not sure. I am sure that I was asleep by about 8pm though.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a Happy Thanksgiving, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the blog world ate on this special day!

Have you ever beat yourself up over an indulgence? What was your favorite thing you ate on Thanksgiving (or that Thursday if you don’t celebrate)?