Welp, just like that, my favorite holiday is over and done with (though Cow Milked While Flying in an Airplane Day is right around the corner, so that’s something to look forward to).
Well, Christmas too, I suppose.
I pointed out to Tara that this was our 14th Thanksgiving together. Timely, as 14 is our lucky number! Our first seven Thanksgivings we hosted, and our last seven have been just us and the cat(s). I guess I can admit now the real reason we moved was to avoid the hassle of hosting. All those damn dishes piled high in the sink after our guests left just got to be too much! (We finally got smart and switched to paper plates and plastic utensils. Too bad that genius flex didn’t occur to us until our final year hosting.)
I kid, of course. We loved the warm camaraderie of kith and kin, the festive turkey hats my aunt and uncle wore, the twenty minutes it took my mom to figure out the self-timer on her camera for the obligatory group selfie. I will always treasure those memories.
Having said that, I also appreciate these low-key holidays. If we were to (hypothetically speaking, because there is absolutely no way we would ever make such a mistake, nope, not us, and definitely not yesterday) leave the turkey in the oven a tad too long – say, cooking it to an internal temperature of 195° instead of 165° – at least there’s nobody to complain that the meat’s too dry!
In our defense, this one didn’t come with one of those nifty pop-up timers to tell you when it’s done. Whoopsie. Luckily, gravy hides a multitude of sins.
I’m also really embracing shortcuts these days. Like buying a pre-brined turkey. Microwaving a frozen bag of mashed sweet potatoes. Even, heaven forbid, buying a jar of cranberry sauce instead of making it fresh, which is already pretty much the easiest thing you can whip up. I guess I’m growing lazy in my advancing years.
(Thank you, Trader Joe’s, for all those Thanksgiving hacks.)
We spent all afternoon and evening in the basement, watching movies while enjoying a fire in the wood stove because it was super cold. Cloudy, snow flurries, and 29°. Today is even colder; it’s in the teens as I’m writing this! Our koi are now officially hibernating, like it or not.
The wood stove is so efficient, at one point I took my pants off. It’s okay; I had a cat on my lap. Which itself is fraught with risk, come to think of it…
Tara had to work today, but I took a PTO day. I’ve never liked working on Black Friday; I get PTSD from my days working retail in the mall. And while I’m not one of those people who gets up at the crack of dawn and stands in a long line to save $10 on a toaster oven, I did go shopping. Grocery shopping, which isn’t the same thing at all. I zipped down to Woodman’s Market in Janesville, which is ordinarily a zoo. Today? Not so much.
That, by the way, is the cheese aisle. JUST the cheese aisle. You think that’s impressive? Their frozen pizza selection went viral and made national news a couple of years ago.
I love Woodman’s! It’s quintessentially Wisconsin, much like Kwik Trip and supper clubs. Regional chain, employee-owned, super low prices, and massive stores. There are 19 Woodman’s locations in Wisconsin and northern Illinois and they average 230,000 square feet – double the size of your typical Costco. That’s equivalent to four 747 airplane hangars, kids. Just walking from one end of the store to the other takes half an hour. I’ve been known to hit my 10,000-step daily goal shopping for next week’s groceries.
Woodman’s also has robots roaming the aisles checking prices and inventory, Transformers-like grocery carts with handlebars and cellphone holders, and state-of-the-art bathroom sinks that let you lather, rinse, and dry your hands all in one convenient spot.
I’ve never been a huge fan of grocery shopping, but whenever I go to Woodman’s, I swear it feels fun.
How was your Thanksgiving? Are you a Black Friday shopper? Got a favorite grocery store?
Mark My Words 
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