For the first time in 42 years, I spent Thanksgiving without family. By family I mean other than my small family of 4.
Jason's parents traveled to spend the holiday with his sister and we couldn't make the trip so that left us with an opening. We could either spend the day in bed sulking or find something to do. Because we all know I'm too lazy to make a Thanksgiving meal for my family of 4 unless it entails toast. I'm good at toast.
We booked a few nights stay at a Hilton Hotel in Denver. We wouldn't have had to do that if our basement had a pool. Just sayin.
We left on Wednesday.
Here I am, waiting for Jason to check us in. I bring my own pillows to hotels now because I can't handle the squishniness of theirs. I'm basically a diva.
Jason is a Hilton Honors member and he got his name on the scroll at the hotel. Very similar to Santa's Naughty/Nice list only there's a Coca-Cola emblem at the top. Everyone knows Santa drinks Pepsi.
The hotel manager came to greet us. I imagine it was because we were the only one's there and he was lonely. He offered Dawson and Evan a candy bar from the "you have to pay for these" jar -and neither of them took one! I should have denied them both food on Thanksgiving because I wanted a Snickers.
Our room was a comfortable little thing with a kitchen to store our pepsi and snacks which we planned to keep us full until our feast.
I forgot to mention that the boys turned down the candy bar for an ice cream sandwich. Whose children are they?!
Our first day was spent letting the boys swim and then spending hours searching the guide on the tv trying to decide what to watch. It's usually American Pickers unless Expedition Unknown is on. Then Jason and I fight over Expedition Unknown because he says the expedition is always a fail since he never ever ever finds anything. I feel that's harsh. On the episode I watched, he found an old glass of champagne at the bottom of a lake in Austria. Now that's something!
On Thanksgiving Day, our first order of business was to visit the Krispy Kreme located just a few miles from our hotel which was strategically placed. Doughnuts are an integral part of all holiday festivities. Just ask a pilgrim.
Where did Dawson put his glasses? Where did my lips put their color?
Then we went back to the hotel to decide where to go next. I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, because I'm an American Citizen and that's what we do. This reminded me that I could possibly be mistaken about the whole "first time in 42 years" bit I said earlier because my junior year of college I went with my best friend to New York and I remember seeing part of the parade.
Doesn't everyone keep their swimming goggles on the stand with the tv?
Then we decided to take the boys to the Denver museum. By we I mean Jason. I thought going to the museum wasn't a great idea because who wants to pay to look at stuffed birds that we've already paid to see? But he saw that they had an exhibit that he thought the kids might like so we went anyway.
This exhibit had stations set up all over with hard to solve puzzles. This puzzle had the boys put cuffs that were attached to strings on both wrists and then get themselves untangled. I'm like why the heck did we pay for that? They get themselves into worse situations at home.
The bright side of this exhibit was a conveyor belt that required you to fit puzzle pieces (that were pictures of food) into their slot at a rapid pace. They boys did this for about 15 minutes while I sat and stared. It was nice. A friendly mom even helped them out.
We made our way to the Cuba Exhibition. There wasn't much to do there and I felt they should have at least offered us free samples of a sandwich like they do in Costco.
On our way out we visited the Dinosaur exhibition. Evan cheered up a bit by this, on account of how he wants to spawn and raise his own Velociraptor and name it Blue just like Jurassic World (one of his favorite movies).
You walk a lot in a museum. They had a bench sitting near the entrance to the restroom, which made the term all the more meaningful. See?
By the time we finished at the museum we were starving but unwilling to eat lunch because we wanted to be ravenous in time for our Thanksgiving meal. We went to Starbucks and got coffee and hot chocolate. While I waited for our drinks, Jason walked to McDonald's next door and got him and the boys a snack so that way I wouldn't turn into a velociraptor at their whining and complaining.
It was now mid afternoon. We needed at least one more thing to do to occupy our time before our dinner reservation. So we went to see Wreck it Ralph (Ralph breaks the internet).
Spoiler alert: Ralph doesn't break the real-life internet. Just the movie internet.
On our way out I was mesmerized by the sky that looked like a face with a gaping mouth ready to eat me straight out of horror film. Perhaps even God's creation gets hungry for Thanksgiving.
Finally, our reservation for dinner at Maggiano's had come.
Of course I didn't take any food pictures. You all know my aversion to food pictures. But here's the menu from the website:
Compliments of the Chef
Classic Tomato Bruschetta
First Course
Maggiano’s and Caesar Salads
Second Course
Served with cranberry relish
Please choose two:
- Traditional Roast Turkey Breast with Giblet Gravy & Focaccia Sausage Stuffing
- Country-Style Baked Smoked Ham with Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia with Sage, Lemon & Tomatoes
Sides:
Please choose two
Tuscan Creamed Corn, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Creamed Spinach, Focaccia Sausage Stuffing
Pastas:
Please choose two
Taylor Street Baked Ziti, Our Famous Rigatoni “D”®, Spaghetti & Meatball, Four-Cheese Ravioli†, Gnocchi & Italian Sausage, Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli
Third Course
Please choose two:
Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake†, Tiramisu, Chocolate Zuccotto Cake, Warm Apple Crostada
The first thing that should have entered your mind was: "what did Evan eat?" Which may be the title to the book I write someday, on the memoirs of my life with a picky eater. The answer to that question is (drum roll) bread. That's it. Bread. He also did attempt to eat a pat of butter but spit it out promptly when he determined it didn't taste as glamorous as it looked.
We didn't eat dessert while we were there and I'm still in shock that I didn't go puke in order to make room for it. They boxed it up for us and we ate it 2 days later and it was still good.
I was concerned that we wouldn't feel festive enough to decorate for Christmas on Friday when we got home. It's a tradition. The decorating commenced much later in the evening than I can remember us doing so, but it still happened so... Christmas is saved everybody.
I think I should mention that our tree has been overtaken by Star Wars. If they should come alive at night and terrorize my house, I know the force. So. I'm good.
The End
