I love Thanksgiving! It is by far my most favorite holiday!! Why? Because there is no pressure. You just have to eat and hang out. It is incredible. I love food and I love to eat. Of course, since I am the cook, I have to prepare the food before I can eat it. But, I am totally fine with cooking.
Since our Mom has passed away, I am the matriarch of our family and every other year my siblings come to my house. This is an off year and they will be with the in-laws! So we are taking Thanksgiving to the BEACH!!! I love Thanksgiving at the beach! Do we still have turkey and all the trimmings? You bet we do! I told you it is my favorite holiday and the food is the best part. This year I will do all the prep work in my kitchen and take the dishes ready to bake. It is a lot of work on the front end, but makes the beach time easy and fun. A real vacation and holiday all in one! We eat fried turkey (Thanks to Jerrod) and all the trimmings and then the next day we have crab legs and fried crab claws! Did I tell you I love to eat!! There will be movies, games, shopping, and football. You also can’t forget walks on the beach and searching for shells.
Here is what I am doing to have the best and easy Thanksgiving…
I have a box started with things to take with me. I bought our paper products when I bought the Halloween costumes. I also saw some cute decorations for our table. I put things in the box as I get them, this way everything is ready to go when it is time to pack. Other things in the box so far…syrup for the waffles, a game I don’t want to forget and sunscreen (fingers crossed).
Other bags I will carry to the beach with me to make Thanksgiving easier are my kitchen bag and medicine bag. Since we stay in condos I always bring my kitchen bag that stays packed. It has all the little things you usually have to run out and grab at the store - salt &pepper shakers, oil, zip lock bags, dishwashing liquid and dishwasher soap. I also have paper towels, paper plates, cups, forks, and extra garbage bags. My medicine bag is full of things my family typically may need. In it you’ll find - Advil, liquid Advil, Zyrtec, band aids, eye drops, pepto (so far I haven’t needed this, knock on wood)! As a family we like to travel a lot, and I always pack a lot of stuff. My husband has a love/hate relationship with the stuff I take. Of course the one time I didn’t take any of my “extra” bags……he was missing them. Guarantee he won't gripe about what I take this year.
Now let’s talk about Thanksgiving Day… When we go to the beach for Thanksgiving, we go with my best friend and her family. Carla and I have adopted each other and we spend every holiday together. Her husband always makes the fried turkey and they are the best! Since I make the sides, I will do most of the prep work at home. This way I’m not spending all day cooking and can spend all day sitting on the beach! I put it in coolers when we leave and all I have to do Thanksgiving morning is put it in crock pots or pans to bake.
The rest of the trip we will eat in our condo. Of course we will go out to get seafood, once or twice. I like to make muffins and cookies for us to snack on and waffles are a tradition for breakfast that can’t be forgotten! One other way to help make the trip low maintenance is, I usually take spaghetti sauce I have already prepared and frozen for dinner one night.
We can't wait to gobble til we wobble! How do you do Thanksgiving? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
Lisa
Post a Comment