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So, you’ve saved up that PTO for the end of year and you’re ready to get some quality time in with family and friends over Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of course, there are some negatives about being home, like being harassed as to why you haven’t settled down with someone yet, but I like to think the pros outweigh the cons in most cases. I’ve put together a list of my favorite things about coming home, and I’m hoping my fellow postgrads can relate.
1.Free Food
I could end the list right after this and it would be the mic drop of this article. Is there anything better than free food? Not to mention it’s holiday food, which is like the Justin Timberlake of food groups. I mean we’re talking pumpkin rolls, apple pie, turkey, ham, casseroles on casseroles, deviled eggs, and cranberry sauce. Those foods are bringing sexy back to my usual diet, which consist of me getting lazy, and throwing a chicken breast in the oven while drowning it in Stubbs BBQ sauce. Make no apologies when you stiff arm your cousin on the way to take the last slice of apple pie like the savage that you are. Calories don’t count at mom’s house, so feast like a king, and take no prisoners on the way to seconds.
2.Good liquor
If you’re like me, the best liquor I ever get a hold of is Jack Daniel’s. Don’t get me wrong, JD is my go-to liquor choice by far, but every now and then it’s good to get a taste of the finer things in life. My step-dad keeps a liquor cabinet stashed with all the good stuff. The price of this guy’s liquor cabinet probably comes close to my bi-weekly paycheck, and I can respect that. Nothing beats sitting on the back deck with a fire going while drinking a Woodford on the rocks discussing politics, as well as college war stories with the uncles and step-dad. I’ll take down a few Moscow Mules over the holiday as well, although I’m not a huge vodka fan. This drink has become a staple of mine on trips home. I’ll live it up in the alcohol department while I’m there, because when I get back to the day-to-day grind, I’ll return to my usual staple of Jack and Cokes and High Life.
Sidebar: I typically buy something comparable to replace at least a portion of what I’ve drank, so I’m not a complete mooch.
3.Getting the Squad Back Together
This is probably my favorite part of coming home. Typically, this will consist of the squad going way too hard at the local watering hole called Cowboys. It’s the pride of the southeast Alabama nightlife, and also GAC’s #1 rated Honkey Tonk in Alabama for 2013…or something like that. Anyways, Wednesday night before Thanksgiving is always the night everyone decides to get belligerent in the hometown. College kids are on break along with the postgrads who have moved off after college, so every bar is packed, at least for Dothan standards. Nothing is better than getting to catch up with old friends while being able to take advantage of cheap drinks out on the town. Also, waking up with a hangover to a Thanksgiving feast, accompanied with mimosas, is basically heaven on earth. Christmas is always a good time to get the team back together as well, but I find Thanksgiving to be a little easier as Christmas typically involves a lot more committed family time.
4.Quality Family Time
This may not apply to everyone, but I love spending time with my family. With immediate family, cousins, uncles, and aunts, we end up with around 20+ eating Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner at my mother’s house. Like the saint that she is, mom doesn’t complain a bit about having this many people over at the house for a few days for each holiday. My family has an awesome time together. All of us are extremely close and the cousins grew up together as basically brothers and sisters. Listening to my uncles tell stories about their glory days after having a little too much to drink (myself included) is always a good time. I feel extremely lucky to have a family I enjoy spending time around, and I look forward to eating too much and drinking too much with all of them over the holidays.
Besides the typical annoying things that go with spending a lot of time with the family, I have a great time over the holidays. As I’ve gotten older I’ve started to appreciate spending more time with family and friends whenever I get the chance. Let’s be honest, I can put up with a lot of shit for multiple days of free food and alcohol. Happy holidays, folks..
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5. Leftovers
Was expecting a better example than Woodford Reserve.
Am I becoming a fucking whiskey snob?..PGP
If you have to ask? PGP?
Had a glass of Woodford Saturday night. Went to my old standbye Buffalo Trace for round 2, wasn’t feeling Woodford.
You can go sit at the kids table.
Down voted on Buffalo Trace over Woodford? You guys are wrong.
Do less, man.
Now pop up
Random question this made me think of. When does the place you grew up in stop being “home?” I haven’t lived in that town in over 11 years (never moved back after graduation), and I don’t think I’ve even been back there in like 3 years. My parents are split up and my mother downsized after my next sibling went off to college herself, so they don’t live in the house I grew up in. So when do you think it no longer qualifies as, “going home,” and just becomes, “going to your parents’ house?”
My dad was in the army for 30 years so “home” is a relative term for me as well. The fact that my “squad” is all over the country because all their parents were in the army as well. It’s an interesting dynamic.
Your dad is cooler than my dad.
If it makes you feel any better my parents don’t drink so holidays are booze free.