**I apologize, but due to Thanksgiving there isn’t going to be a recipe post this week. But I’ll be back at it next week with a delicious dish involving butternut squash! Yum!**

My favorite holiday of the year, Thanksgiving, is officially over. Sad day. But, I was able to spend most of the week with my wonderful family, which was pretty much the most amazing thing ever. With my younger brother and sister living in Alabama and South Carolina, respectively, I don’t get to see them that often. Thankfully, they both arrived by Wednesday and the good times started.

Why Wednesday? Well, we celebrate Thanksgiving-Eve. Yup. You read that correctly and the traditional Thanksgiving-Eve meal in our home is chili. Why? I don’t know, really. You’d have to ask my sisters because I don’t really remember it being a tradition, but don’t tell them that because they get a little touchy when traditions aren’t remembered. My best guess is that it’s a really easy meal to throw together the night before all hell breaks loose. I’d personally vote for no meal the evening before because there is so much food at our Thanksgiving celebration. So. Much. Like, it’s kind of ridiculous. We only have at most 11 people at our home, but we cook for 44. You got your 10 pound turkey, dressing, green been casserole, squash casserole, fried corn, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, apple and cheese casserole, some sort of gelatinized salad, cranberry sauce, and rolls. Oh, don’t forget the desserts…Sweet potato pie, Coca-Cola cake, ambrosia…Is it all delicious? Of course, but it’s getting out of hand. We’ve tried to take some of the dishes away, but believe it or not, each of them is someone’s favorite. You can’t go taking away someone’s favorite Thanksgiving dish. We also add a dish when a new member of the family is added. My sister’s husband gets sweet potato pie (which actually took the place of my favorite chocolate chess pie, but let’s just pretend that didn’t happen…). My brother’s fiancé is responsible for the mac & cheese addition (no complaints from this girl). I think we have a problem as a family…I really do…

So, we ate dinner and then watched Home Alone. Yet another tradition. My family is just full of them…but, we usually watch Christmas Vacation. It’s hilarious. You can’t go wrong with that movie. Some folks decided that we needed to change it up and so Home Alone it was. It’s a great movie, but not as great as Christmas Vacation…

And because spending the previous two days together isn’t enough, we had a siblings dinner Friday evening at a new Italian restaurant in town, IL Primo. Good food, good wine, and great conversation made for an excellent time. But the family time wasn’t over yet…

Saturday was Rivalry Weekend in College Football. We all attended SEC schools and, thus, have a specific rivalry to watch. You’ve got the Iron Bowl, Clean Old-Fashioned Hate, and South Carolina vs. Clemson (there could possibly be an actual name for this one, but I don’t know it. Sorry, Anne). And wouldn’t you know it that every single one of our football teams lost. All of them. It was a terrible day for football in the Holt house. Just terrible.

The family fun still wasn’t over. You’d think we would have spent enough time together by this point in the week, but you would be wrong. We all met for brunch on Sunday at Chato Brasserie. I mean, you have to send everyone off in the proper manner. Plus, it has the added bonus of being that one family event that sends everyone over the edge. Everyone goes back to their lives and you don’t even miss them for the month of December because you got your fill at Thanksgiving. It’s really great. Just as Christmas is upon us, we are all ready to see each other again. Simply perfection.