I hope you all have a Happy Happy Thanksgiving. I for one love this holiday, and have been in the kitchen cooking all day.
I hope you all can be with family and friends, and have a wonderful holiday. Be safe out there, its going to be icy if you have to travel her in VA. From my Husband, my kiddos, and I, have a happy happy Thanksgiving.
Remember who, what, and where we have been blessed. I think about it every day but most particularly on this holiday.
Love to you all.
Tanya
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
Abraham Lincoln
And the same from Mr. and Mrs. Swampman, and all the little swamp-critters. One of the many things I am thankful for is having a great group here on the forum that will listen to my rants! Happy Turkey everyone!
Progressives/Liberals - Promoting tyranny and a defenseless people since 1913.
Happy Turkey-Day! As the official chef for the first time, I called my mom, and told her she was right. "6 hours to cook everything, 30 minutes to eat it."
Told her, "it's like being in an amusement park ride line....You're so happy to be a the end, it's the best tasting stuff ever... if you're still hungry." HAHAHA
"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."
Well, we’ve reached the point where our kids more often want us to come to them than them coming home on Holidays. So SWMBO was in Raleigh on Tuesday for Grandparent‘s day at Kindergarten. She was going to come home that day and we were going to Charleston, SC on Wednesday. Then the bad weather got forecast. I tried to get her to drive from Raleigh to Asheville (4 hours) and meet me so we could stay overnight there and go on to Charleston Wednesday (4 more hours). No go. Guess she was uncomfortable with making the drive she’d never made before alone. I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to get over Flag Pond Mountain at Sam’s Gap (around 3,500 feet in elevation) on I-26 on the Tennessee-North Carolina border on Wednesday morning. So I wound up driving to Raleigh (5 hours & 45 minutes if you only make one stop) Tuesday afternoon and then from Raleigh to Charleston. That’s about 280 miles and should have taken no more than 5 hours. But guess what? It took a couple of extra hours. I expected a lot of traffic, but I didn’t expect that everybody else on that damned road would be conspiring to kill me. A lot of the time I spent bumper-to-bumper at anywhere from 55-60 mph to as little as 8 mph. But at other times, things would loosen up and traffic would get up to 80 or 85 mph. Then, all of a sudden, you’d see taillights going on and you’d be trying not to plow into the traffic ahead of you that had suddenly come to an absolute dead stop. There were never any wrecks or other evidence of WHY everybody suddenly parked in the road; but it happened 4-5 times. I’m pretty sure I never want to travel I-95 from Raleigh to Charleston again.
Then, since #2 son and his Frau have no kids and I didn’t want them and SWMBO to cook all day to make food that would probably go to waste, I had told them to make reservations somewhere nice to eat Thanksgiving dinner out. Naturally, they didn’t. They waited until 10:30 AM on Thanksgiving day to make the reservations, which meant that they wound up taking the only ones they could get. It was a buffet at a restaurant called 225 Grill in fancy boutique hotel. The food was very, very good. They had oysters on the half, a full sushi bar, turkey & dressing, prime rib, roast pork, sea bass stuffed with lobster, chicken stuffed with crab and an equally impressive spread of vegetables and elaborate desserts. I ordered a pretty good bottle of wine and we all had a martini. I guess it didn’t occur to anybody to ask what a buffet cost at that joint. I don’t know that it would have occurred to me, to tell the truth. But when they brought me the bill it was $699.90 for 4 people! The asking price for the buffet was $95 a head. I didn’t feel anything hit me in the @ss on the way out the door, either. I guess I expected to get screwed a little bit, but I wasn’t looking for them to try to f*** me to death; you know?. I didn’t begrudge anything to my family, but I kept thinking I’d have felt better if we’d eaten at a K&W cafeteria or something and donated $500 to feed Thanksgiving dinner to the needy. Next morning, we all met #1 son and grandson and went out to the Tomato Shed at Stono Market and ate a good country meal including their amazing ‘mater pie. Then we drove home that Friday to avoid the rush on Saturday or Sunday. Traffic wasn’t too bad on I-26 except that it was backed up onto the interstate in Columbia; apparently by traffic trying to get into a big mall there. After we got North of the intersection with I-77 traffic was actually pretty light, in fact. Now I’ve got to figure out how to get my pickup that SWMBO left parked at Daughter’s house back home from Raleigh.
BUT, the important thing was that over that 3 days I saw all my kids and all my grandkids and I passed a couple of days in the bosom of my family; which is getting harder to do with them all moved away from home. So it was a very good Thanksgiving notwithstanding a few unusual glitches, small inconveniences and minor irritations. You have to focus on what’s important.
"The Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference." -Thomas Jefferson
Gun-crazy? Me? I'd say the gun-crazy ones are the ones that don’t HAVE one.
dorminWS wrote:Well, we’ve reached the point where our kids more often want us to come to them than them coming home on Holidays. So SWMBO was in Raleigh on Tuesday for Grandparent‘s day at Kindergarten. She was going to come home that day and we were going to Charleston, SC on Wednesday. Then the bad weather got forecast. I tried to get her to drive from Raleigh to Asheville (4 hours) and meet me so we could stay overnight there and go on to Charleston Wednesday (4 more hours). No go. Guess she was uncomfortable with making the drive she’d never made before alone. I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to get over Flag Pond Mountain at Sam’s Gap (around 3,500 feet in elevation) on I-26 on the Tennessee-North Carolina border on Wednesday morning. So I wound up driving to Raleigh (5 hours & 45 minutes if you only make one stop) Tuesday afternoon and then from Raleigh to Charleston. That’s about 280 miles and should have taken no more than 5 hours. But guess what? It took a couple of extra hours. I expected a lot of traffic, but I didn’t expect that everybody else on that damned road would be conspiring to kill me. A lot of the time I spent bumper-to-bumper at anywhere from 55-60 mph to as little as 8 mph. But at other times, things would loosen up and traffic would get up to 80 or 85 mph. Then, all of a sudden, you’d see taillights going on and you’d be trying not to plow into the traffic ahead of you that had suddenly come to an absolute dead stop. There were never any wrecks or other evidence of WHY everybody suddenly parked in the road; but it happened 4-5 times. I’m pretty sure I never want to travel I-95 from Raleigh to Charleston again.
Then, since #2 son and his Frau have no kids and I didn’t want them and SWMBO to cook all day to make food that would probably go to waste, I had told them to make reservations somewhere nice to eat Thanksgiving dinner out. Naturally, they didn’t. They waited until 10:30 AM on Thanksgiving day to make the reservations, which meant that they wound up taking the only ones they could get. It was a buffet at a restaurant called 225 Grill in fancy boutique hotel. The food was very, very good. They had oysters on the half, a full sushi bar, turkey & dressing, prime rib, roast pork, sea bass stuffed with lobster, chicken stuffed with crab and an equally impressive spread of vegetables and elaborate desserts. I ordered a pretty good bottle of wine and we all had a martini. I guess it didn’t occur to anybody to ask what a buffet cost at that joint. I don’t know that it would have occurred to me, to tell the truth. But when they brought me the bill it was $699.90 for 4 people! The asking price for the buffet was $95 a head. I didn’t feel anything hit me in the @ss on the way out the door, either. I guess I expected to get screwed a little bit, but I wasn’t looking for them to try to f*** me to death; you know?. I didn’t begrudge anything to my family, but I kept thinking I’d have felt better if we’d eaten at a K&W cafeteria or something and donated $500 to feed Thanksgiving dinner to the needy. Next morning, we all met #1 son and grandson and went out to the Tomato Shed at Stono Market and ate a good country meal including their amazing ‘mater pie. Then we drove home that Friday to avoid the rush on Saturday or Sunday. Traffic wasn’t too bad on I-26 except that it was backed up onto the interstate in Columbia; apparently by traffic trying to get into a big mall there. After we got North of the intersection with I-77 traffic was actually pretty light, in fact. Now I’ve got to figure out how to get my pickup that SWMBO left parked at Daughter’s house back home from Raleigh.
BUT, the important thing was that over that 3 days I saw all my kids and all my grandkids and I passed a couple of days in the bosom of my family; which is getting harder to do with them all moved away from home. So it was a very good Thanksgiving notwithstanding a few unusual glitches, small inconveniences and minor irritations. You have to focus on what’s important.
Looks like the internet grimlins ate my original response. So here it is again, sorry if it duplicates. I am so glad everyone got where they needed to go safely. I am so glad you got to see your babies and spend time with family. It is awesome that you had an great meal. That sucks you got bamboozled on cost. I am of the same mind I would rather donate that money. However at least it was tasty. Glad it was nice over all. *hugs*
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
Abraham Lincoln
Happy Thanksgiving to all. 