Our Family Tradition
- Samantha Hoback
- Nov 27, 2017
- 2 min read
To say that the week has been full of excitement would be an understatement. Most recently--and most well-known--is the engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. This would obviously make any week special, but the fact that it happened four days after one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving, made it the icing on what was already a pretty amazing time with family and friends.
As is tradition, I flew down to South Carolina to spend Turkey Day with my extended family at the beach. Even though I was feeling under the weather, it was so nice to see everyone and walk in the sand and get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. And since I hadn't seen my sister since July (!), I was especially excited to have three full days with her.
On Wednesday we celebrated my cousin's birthday, which actually fell on Thanksgiving this year. So he chose to have a Mexican-themed dinner the evening before, complete with margaritas and a special crumb cake made by the youngest cousin (who is well on her way to becoming an accomplished baker; watch out Food Network).
Thursday morning we all woke up early and put on our warm-weather workout gear for the annual Turkey Trot 5K. Some of us were runners, others of us were walkers (I fell in the latter category this year), but we all had a blast, despite the chilly weather. My sister and two cousins even earned medals in their age division. Pretty impressive!
After our pre-turkey-and-stuffing workout, it was time to get cooking. Prepping for Thanksgiving is no small feat, even with seven of us in the kitchen working on various recipes--from brie and cranberry phyllo cups and hot Virginia dip appetizers, to sweet potato casserole and rosemary rolls. The guys were in charge of roasting not one but two turkeys (the second for leftovers), while the girls busied themselves making pies and corn pudding and homemade cranberry sauce and gravy. Needless to say we were all ridiculously full by the end, though we made room for dessert.
For some people, the day after Thanksgiving is for shopping and decorating for Christmas. Not for us. On Friday we were lazy, walking along the beach, throwing together lunches with leftovers, and playing a hilarious game of Celebrity after stuffing our faces for the second night in a row. (Celebrity was a new addition this year, though I think maybe it will become a tradition. We really did have fun, even if the boys beat the girls.)
Those three days flew by, and before I knew it I was back on a plane headed for New York. I caught up on some cleaning and freelance work on Saturday, then proceeded to work 11+ hours at the dance studio on Sunday. Were it not for the exciting news from the royal family this morning, today would have been a real post-Thanksgiving struggle. Instead, I'm ready to start the countdown to my birthday and Christmas. They'll both be here before we know it. Hope everyone had a safe and fun Thanksgiving!
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