orphan thankgiving

so as stated previously i’m one of those people who gets incredibly excited about any holiday that comes after halloween and before, let’s say, president’s day.  the romantic notion of being thankful for our gifts in life and of life and celebrating our lives and family and friends with family and friends is just something that warms my hallmark heart.

so only imagine how difficult it must be to celebrate thanksgiving for the 2nd year in a row without my parents and brother and in the way they used to be celebrated.  growing up, my mom would start preparing for thanksgiving the previous night. wake up, and i hear the macy’s thanksgiving parade on tv, my mom asks me to clean the house while she cooks, my dad preparing and cooking the turkey and slowly my family coming over to help my mom in the kitchen/have a good excuse to sample my mom’s delicious food. (have i mentioned that my mom, dad and brother are all fantastic cooks?)

so i decided i would start year one of my what’s going to be annual orphan thanksgiving. i started a few days before by prepping all my tiny little cutting and putting them into baggies and ocd-organizing all my ingredients with the dishes they will be used for in my fridge. i baked the pie the night before, cleaned the apartment, organized my recyclables, etc.

that morning my friend m came over and we headeed over to the macy’s thanksgiving parade. seriously? i really want to know what possesses parents to bring their kids there. no, really, i want to know. because 1) it’s cold. 2) they’re going to complain that they either don’t want to be there, they can’t see, they’re cold, or they’re hungry. 3) they hoist their children on their shoulders because they’re little kids can’t see which results in surrounding bitter viewers because their view is obstructed by a fidgety, crying, annoying child’s ass in their face. not to mention the whords of crowds, the police partitioning, etc. i seriously would have gotten a better view from my tv. on top of that, thousands of strollers were running amok and crashing into the ankles of my friend m.

as soon as i got to my apartment after, i sent m on his way to go gather the rest of our thanksgiving shiz and i started cooking. dayum. i must say, for my first time ever making homemade stuffing, homemade roasted herb turkey, my own made up green bean casserole dish, homemade mashed potatoes, i did a great job. pictures soon to be posted, but yeah, i’m pretty proud. i set out the nice dishes, turned on the thanksgiving football games and we enjoyed a delicious meal.

the delicious meal was followed by a tell-all game of “never have i ever” (always a good decision after 6 bottles of wine, 3 6-packs of beer, a bottle of vodka) and a hilarious craig’s list posting.  afterwards, we hit up some bars. needless to say, i guess i have to suck it up and grow up, because even though i miss my thanksgivings-of-past, my orphan thanksgiving in lieu of my childhood was equally delicious and fun. what a success.