My Hard Core Shopping Experience

I. Ate. Way. Too. Much.

Thanksgiving started at 6 am with Rob rolling out of bed to go the the parade. This was his 25th parade, and I think it's so cool that he goes every single year. It's a huge pain in my ass, because I either have to go and endure the cold, and millions of people, or miss him all Thanksgiving morning. This year, I opted to miss him, but barely; I was baking. I made everything the night before, and then put it in the oven in the morning so everything would be fresh. Hindsight wisdom: bake pumpkin pies the night before. They're just fine a day old.

I created a cool version of apple pie. Since I didn't want to make a pie crust for the top of my pie, I just made the crust for the bottom, and filling for the inside. Then, I flipped through my Betty Crocker cookbook to the "apple crisp" recipe, and made the "topping" part of it and sprinkled it on top of the pie. I essentially melded two recipes into one, and while taking the topping for apple crisp and putting it on an apple pie is hardly "genius", I was super excited about thinking it up any how.

We took a walk with my cousins and found interesting leaves in pretty colors, and then we took off for Long Island and arrived just in time for dinner with Rob's family. I think I'd have rather eaten RSM's gluten and allergen free Thanksgiving dinner over a Kosher one. It was ok, I guess, but not the same as my grandma's. My grandmother puts sausage in the stuffing, marshmallows on the yams, and butter on the turkey. And it rocks. [Sidenote: Marshmallows are un-kosher because they're made with gelatin, which is made from horse by-products, and horse meat is un-kosher. In case you were wondering. It's a Kosher rule that gets overlooked in my house. Because, come on.]

Kosher Thanksgiving is just not as much fun.

We got up at 3 am on Friday to go shopping. The only thing that made it possible for me to get my ass in gear at that hour was the fact that it was more like staying out late than getting up early. Even then it was really hard, but we were productive. We bought two Wii's; one to give to my cousins and one to scalp flip on eBay. I crawled back into bed around 7:30, and slept until 2 pm. When I got up, I felt exactly like I had a hangover, only worse.

I'm 90% done with my Christmas and Hanukkah shopping, which means that I have time to do the fun stuff, like decorate, make cookies, and party. I'll also be day-dreaming about San Juan, where I will be spending Christmas Day laying on the beach drinking fun, fruity drinks with umbrellas in them, and sarcastically singing about a White Christmas.