Thanksgiving Holiday

Our Thanksgiving dinner turned out really well. I have to say I was very impressed with Boston Market’s “reheat and serve” banquet dinner. Not counting the over one hour wait and the abrupt customer service we had to endure at the pick-up place, it was a pretty pleasant experience. I think the best part was not having to do any cooking and yet having a hot, delicious and traditional dinner! The meal came with an 11-pound roast turkey (that we reheated for almost 2 hours in a roasting bag), mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn bread and a pumpkin pie. The turkey was very moist and flavorful, the gravy was good, the mashed potatoes were lumpy enough for my liking and the corn bread was yummy. I also served steamed green beans with a dash of garlic salt and melted butter which was well received. The only thing that was barely touched was the stuffing. I guess it’s largely because my mom used to make stuffing with rice and mushrooms – and that’s the kind we grew up on. We never had stuffing made with bread – both its look and texture reminded me of mush and was not very appetizing. For dessert, my brother brought a chocolate chip cheesecake from the House of Pies in Los Feliz. It was very decadent and everyone had a slice to round off the meal. We all enjoyed the food for Thanksgiving dinner and even more so the next day when we reheated the leftovers.

But the best part of the Thanksgiving holiday is the Black Friday sales. The next day we all woke up at 4 AM to head over to the Citadel Outlets for shopping! It was a lot of fun. We arrived there a little past 5 and while it was still dark outside, the place was festive because of the lights and the crowds. We managed to find some pretty good deals. I bought shoes at Bass and several cashmere sweaters at Ann Taylor. My hubby got a winter coast for skiing – although I’m not really sure he’ll find much use for it since LA weather is so temperate and since we never really go skiing! We also got to buy Xmas presents for all our nieces and nephews. Jules got scarves, shirts and a sweater. While my aunt, uncle and cousin did their fair share of shopping too. By around noon, the sun was out and most of the sales were over (most stores were offering sale prices from 5 AM to 11 AM only), so after lunch, we headed home to take a nap.

Good food, family and friends, shopping, napping and snacking on leftovers – what could be a better way to spend the Thanksgiving holidays?!