Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who is celebrating it!

 

It's now time for my annual sharing/shaming photo of Manami. In case you haven't seen it before, I took this photo a few years ago right after Manami decided to over-OVER indulge at the dinner table. I repost it every year in order to try and thwart her from doing it again by showing her how unsightly it is to pig out like crazy.

 

So here she is in all her greedy glory.... please note the pronounced food baby.

 

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and enjoys their food.... just not to the extent Manami enjoys hers.

 

 

 

Billy

Happy Hurt Yourself With Food Day!

 

. . . .I'm wondering if it's possible to explain this holiday to people not in the US. Not sure it's possible. XD

I'm wondering if it's possible to explain this holiday to people not in the US. Not sure it's possible

 

any russian family won't really need it explained as ALL holidays involve gettin entire family together and eating our nearly-literal weight in grandmas' food. That's not a misplaced apostrophe, I mean each grandma makes things, and then it's all pooled into a freakin 3-course meal

Especially New Years for some reason...

Edited November 27, 2015 by Guest

Happy Hurt Yourself With Food Day!

 

. . . .I'm wondering if it's possible to explain this holiday to people not in the US. Not sure it's possible. XD

In Australia we do the same thing on christmas. I dont know if the US pigs out on christmas as well, but if thats the case, it seems almost dangerous to have two food-coma holidays so close to eachother.

 

Honestly the weirdest thing to me about thanksgiving in the US from what I have gleaned from people talking online is that so much of the food seems to be compulsory, like you -have- to have turkey, pumpkin pie, brussel sprouts, or some other specific food, and several people I know hate this food with a passion and complain about 'having' to eat it every year... on christmas we just eat (a lot of....) food we like.

That and there seems to be a requirement to hang out with terrible relatives, which makes me glad we dont have it (then again, the relatives I have that I dont particularly like are ones I dont even see on christmas cos they live too far away.)

 

(okay that and the idea of pumpkin buy being a dessert and not a savoury thing. Sorry guys, from an outsiders perspective the idea of sweet vegetables with sugar/cream makes me wanna hurl.)

Honestly the weirdest thing to me about thanksgiving in the US from what I have gleaned from people talking online is that so much of the food seems to be compulsory, like you -have- to have turkey, pumpkin pie, brussel sprouts, or some other specific food, and several people I know hate this food with a passion and complain about 'having' to eat it every year... on christmas we just eat (a lot of....) food we like.

That and there seems to be a requirement to hang out with terrible relatives, which makes me glad we dont have it (then again, the relatives I have that I dont particularly like are ones I dont even see on christmas cos they live too far away.)

 

(okay that and the idea of pumpkin buy being a dessert and not a savoury thing. Sorry guys, from an outsiders perspective the idea of sweet vegetables with sugar/cream makes me wanna hurl.)

 

Yeah, a lot of the foods are traditional. . . And actually, at least in my family, a lot of the "I have to eat x" complaints come from having to eat the version from the opposite side of the family, because everyone thinks the version they grew up with is best. Christmas is much more freeform food-wise, but people get pulled around by obligations more at Christmas, so the food coma part doesn't always happen; Christmas is more about freaking out over how to get everyone presents they like, and then stress-eating whatever desserts are in front of you.

 

As for the family getting together thing, yeah, that too can get a bit weird, especially if both sides of your family live in the same city--then you get a Thanksgiving commute between the events on both sides of your family. >.< Most people are too spread out across the country for that, though, which is why the day before Thanksgiving is statistically the heaviest travel day in the entire country: everyone's scrambling to get to their distant relatives' homes. Basically, it's a yearly family reunion for a lot of people, since trying to get people together any other time of year is like herding cats. As for whether that's a pleasant reunion or not depends a LOT on your relationship with your extended family and how much you care about impressing or placating the ones you don't get along with.

 

As for my family, we've kind of given up on the "impressing each other" aspect that kind of pervaded when I was younger--too much stress for too little return, really, so we've been doing smaller deals the past couple years, and sometimes either eating out, pre-ordering stuff to-go, or doing things more potluck-style instead of spending 10 hours home-making every damn must-have. (And actually, last year we did ham and ratatouille, and a couple years before that my mom scored a deal on Cornish game hens, so everyone that year got their own personal bird! Some traditions are best either flexible or left behind.)

 

Whaaa? Dude, pumpkin pie is awesome. Well, can be, at least--personally, I like it best when it's not overly sweet but does have noticeable cinnamon notes to it. Not everyone nails that. :/

Lol, Manami would do something like that. None of my girls appear to be piggy but Miku was being an attention hog by sprawling out places and messing with my Aunt's dog who was freaking out over the mini person moving around on the counter. Also she's wearing a pirate hat everywhere now and through mental gymnastics convinced herself that that's thanksgiving spirit because in her mind anyone who travels by boat (like the pilgrims) is a pirate. I didn't get a lot of pictures because said Aunt's dog slept on my lap through half the day and moving her would have been a crime.