I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving – I know we’re almost a week out now…

… but Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday…and no, as much as I love food – it’s not about the food. I know I’ve talked about it before – Thanksgiving is pretty much the only holiday that isn’t about the “gimmes” (aside from – hey, gimme some cheese, please) – it’s just about hanging out with your family and eating a killer meal.  

 The fact that Thanksgiving gets trampled by Christmas commercials (I think I said “NO!” out loud at the first Christmas-themed ad I saw in November) or Black Friday madness is just kinda sad to me.

 Okay, off my soap box.

 This year, everyone in my family seemed extra pumped for the time off and for our time together – it’s way too rare. Plans were being tossed around weeks in advance…

• Charcoal Weber roasted turkey! – yes!
• Copious amounts of beer? – yes!
• Hanging out at the local bar (in addition to the beer in the fridge, of course)? – yes!
• Our first annual croquet tourney? – yes… I’ll probably suck…but yes!
• Bond…James Bond…marathons on SyFy? – yes!
• Football game after football game? – yes!
• Getting the entire family together to see Skyfall? – yes!

 I knew I wanted to make something…but it had to be able to survive a 6-8 hour car ride. So I searched and searched…and finally settled on Jenna’s Walnut Potato Rolls with Honey Butter.

 Had I ever made bread from scratch before? No. Did working with yeast scare the crap out of me? Yes. But what’s the worst that could happen…they’re awful? I’m in.

I started the process on Tuesday night (I’m glad I did…our house gets cold so it took extra time for the dough to rise)…and finished it on Wednesday morning. Was it worth it? Yep.

Our apartment smelled soo, soo good Wednesday morning as I worked from home.

 Eventually, my mom, brother and I piled in the car, and headed to upstate NY… the car ride, which normally takes 6 hours, took 8…but it was so worth it.

For Turkey Day, my cousin roasted the turkey – with this awesome rub he brought from North Carolina – on the Weber…and it was amazing. We spend the day outside – it was sixty degrees! – enjoying the sunshine.

On top of the turkey, we had just about every side dish under the sun. No shame.

Over the course of just couple days, we ticked off everything on our “to-do” list…including some random adventures…like a round of golf and some wine and vodka tasting.

Oh, the trip also included some quality bonding time…

Did I overindulge on Thanksgiving? Definitely. Do I regret it? Not one bit.

What’d you do for Thanksgiving? Do you run a race? Travel? Stay put? Any special dishes that you bring?