When one thinks of Christmas one usually envisions minty candy canes, twinkling lights, lively carols, jolly men…and monstrously huge granny panties? No? Well, you must not have had your share of Sabin Christmas fun then.

Every year we host a small Christmas get-together. The particulars of this festivity have changed through the years; what used to be a fancy candlelight dinner has turned into a relaxed informal gathering of friends. But through all the shifting party schemes one party favorite has remained: the white elephant gift exchange.

What a white elephant has to do with gifts that typically range from tacky to bizarre is beyond me but this classic Christmas game certainly unearths some timeless treasures. Power Klingon on cassette tape, golden pheasant sculptures, lice spray, headless nutcrackers, archaic computer manuals, brass knuckles…the list goes on and on. This year Brett was even fortunate enough to procure a very large pair of granny panties. Lucky!

In our version of the white elephant exchange all the gifts remain wrapped until the end. We find this method more amusing since oftentimes the gifts that are fought over most turn out to be quite absurd, like a pair of used socks from a guy with stinky feet or a half eaten box of cereal. Just what you’ve always wanted!

A pretty bow may disguise a loathsome gift: that’s the lesson one quickly learns from attending a Sabin Christmas party and I think it’s also the title of a James Bond theme song.

Merry Christmas everyone! May your brass knuckles be shiny and bright and your headless nutcracker a delight!

Thanksgiving: the great day of stuffing. Thanksgiving for most people means eating until you’re relatively certain that consumption of even one more bite will result in a massive vomitous explosion. When I was a kid I definitely gorged myself on Turkey Day but I have since outgrown my desire to ingest painfully large quantities of food. Thanksgiving has therefore become a holiday of food quality not quantity for me. Everything I make for our crazy array of family dinners has to be homemade and delicious; I usually bring out my most decadent and elaborate recipes for this holiday.

With two families to visit, Thanksgiving, like Christmas, is typically very hectic for me and Jason and generally leaves us completely exhausted. So this year, in addition to the pumpkin cheesecake and assorted tidbits I made for our family dinners, I decided to cook me and Jason pre and post Thanksgiving meals on Wednesday and Friday. I thought it would be nice to make some tasty food on days we could actually relax a bit and enjoy it.

I made Butternut Squash Soup, Phyllo Wrapped Asparagus, and Bruschetta with Sautéed Sweet Peppers and Creamy Gorgonzola for our pre-feasting feast and an absolutely scrumptious, and time consuming, Beef Bourguignon recipe for our post-holiday stuffing. Yum!

Spreading out our holiday food intake turned out to be pretty perfect for me since I don’t really care for the normal Thanksgiving porking. Jason made no complaints about this 3 day food fiesta but maybe that’s because his mouth was too crammed to utter a syllable. Either way, I think I have stumbled upon a lovely new Thanksgiving tradition that I am going to continue in the years to come.