Thanksgiving Baking

Andrew and I drove back up to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving this year. It’s the first time I’ve ever driven back home for Thanksgiving. I used to drive back all the during Christmas. I usually left from visiting my friend in New Jersey on Christmas morning and zoomed my way up the east coast. It was super. Apparently there aren’t many people traveling on Christmas morning. All of the cheer and family time precludes people from burning rubber on 95 North.

But this year, we decided to make like the masses and travel for Thanksgiving. But we didn’t decide that until it was way too late and it was going to cost a pretty penny to fly up to Massachusetts. And by a pretty penny I mean $1000. No joke. So instead we hopped in the car for a quick 10 hour drive.

Now let me start by saying the drive was lovely. We took the roundabout route through Pennsylvania and Connecticut, completely bypassing New York, the traffic, and $30 in tolls. I drove, Andrew drove, there was lots of sleeping, and the Tina Fey audiobook.

There was also a lot of food. Shortly before we left I went on a mini baking spree. Clearly we were afraid of getting stranded in temperate weather in a decently populated area because this is a complete list of the food we brought with us:

• 1 chocolate stout cake
• 1 apple crisp
• 2 1/2 dozen chocolate chip cookies
• 1 batch of rice crispy treats
• 1 bag of shrimp chips
• 1 bag of Korean bugels (corn chips)
• 1 box of Pocky
• 1 container of unidentified Korean cookies
• 1 bag of sesame snack mix
• 1 bag of random grain snack mix that Andrew picked out
• 2 apples
• 4 cans of soda
• 1 container of marinated Korean bean sprouts
• 1 container of Korean watercress salad
• 1 tube of chocolate cookies
• 1 container of Korean walnut cookies

And on our way up we stopped at Sonic. However, I would like to share with you the list of food we returned with four days later:

• 1 chocolate stout cake
• 1 apple crisp
• 2 1/2 dozen chocolate chip cookies
• 1 batch of rice crispy treats
• 1 bag of shrimp chips
• 1 bag of Korean bugels (corn chips)
• 1 box of Pocky
• 1 container of unidentified Korean cookies
• 1 bag of sesame snack mix
• 1 bag of random grain snack mix that Andrew picked out
• 2 apples
• 4 cans of soda
• 1 container of marinated Korean bean sprouts
• 1 container of Korean watercress salad
• 1 tube of chocolate cookies
• 1 1/2  of a container of Korean walnut cookies
• 4 bottles of water
• 4 granola bars
• 1 package of peanuts
• 1 lb of jelly beans

And we left behind an apple pie.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I look forward to every year and every year it pulls through and doesn’t disappoint me. For the past couple of years I’ve been running a turkey trot 5K with my best friend from high school, Jen. Jen and I used to go out to breakfast on Thanksgiving morning, but a few years ago we realized that was COMPLETELY STUPID and did a 180 on that tradition. And every Friday morning, the Jackster and I get up with the crazies and go shopping on Black Friday. Except we never want to buy anything ridiculous so I’m not sure it’s really worth it. This year we dragged Andrew out of bed and made him come out with us. I bought him a power drill though, so I think he was mostly ok with it.

I then gave Andrew a quick tour of some of the quirky locales of my childhood. We started by going to see The Muppets at Chunky’s in Haverhill. Chunky’s is your not average movie theater. It’s a complete restaurant with seats from Lincoln Town Cars for chairs at each table where you eat while enjoying your favorite cinema offering. The next day we took a trip to Jordan’s Furniture. Yeah, I took him to a furniture store. So I could do this!

All-in-all it was a full weekend, but a fun one! Twenty hours in a car together wasn’t too bad either. Plus, I got to eat at a Cracker Barrel. And saw a random friend from college at the Wegman’s in Wilkes-Barre. And I got totally awesome gas mileage. Priorities.