A Robison Thanksgiving

Monday night Dan’s parents were nice enough to take us out to dinner to celebrate Dan passing all 4 of his CPA exams. It was anywhere Dan chose to go so we met them in Grapevine and went to Love and War in Texas. It seemed to get really good reviews online so we wanted to try it out. I ordered ribs and it didn’t exactly specify how many so I just assumed like a third of a rack. It turned out to be the biggest full rack of ribs I’ve ever seen. It was longer than my forearm so it had to be over a foot long. It barely fit on the plate. My first thought? ‘Can I have a box with this?’ because I knew I couldn’t finish it all. I maybe got through a little less than half. It was well worth it because those were the best ribs I’ve ever had! I know I’ve been saying that a lot lately but I’m not trying to exaggerate. When I think of ribs throughout my whole life, Love and War is number one. The outside of the ribs had a nice charred spice coating, the ribs were literally falling off the bone- so easy to eat and the bbq sauce they served with it was almost a little spicy. It was perfect. And I got to eat it for two more lunches after that!

Tuesday I spent the evening doing ALL my homework so I didn’t have to worry about it the next few days while family is in town. I’ll have you know I have a major case of senioritis. I never felt this way in high school when it was close to graduation, and even though I’m like 3 semesters away, I’m so done with the classes I’m taking right now. Anatomy & Physiology online is no joke. Plus looking at cadavers online is kind of a weird concept… Anyways I see the light at the end of the tunnel for this semester. I think I can!

On Wednesday I was able to get an earlier shift at work so I could get off earlier and join the family for dinner. Joe flew in Wednesday morning so we had everyone that was coming. We all went to Babe’s for dinner. If you’re like me and have never heard of Babe’s, it’s a hoppin’ place. Apparently the Jonas Brothers are from around here and all they want is Blue Bell Ice Cream and Babe’s Chicken on their tour bus (I know no idea if that’s true). But everyone I’ve talked to starts going, “Oh my gosh… so good!!!” When I mention it and it did not disappoint! It’s an interesting concept for a restaurant- There are only 2 options for dinner, you can either get fried chicken dinner (1/2 a chicken), or chicken fried steak. They serve endless sides of mashed potatoes, creamed corn, biscuits and gravy. They brought out everyone’s chicken on a huge platter, I wish I would have gotten a picture of it! Obviously it was a served family style, it was really casual and fun.

I did have a little mishap while find the restroom there. I was even told that the door looks like it’s just part of the wall, but there I was, standing in the hallway looking for a hidden door and STILL not being able to find it! There weren’t any ladies going in or out, just a bunch of men going in and out of the men’s restroom. Luckily one of them saw me looking like a lost puppy and pointed the door out. It happened to be right in front of my face. Embarrassing. But on the plus side we had left over diner for days after Babe’s!

After dinner Dan’s parents and his brother came to our place. They wanted to see our apartment and then we played some games. Eric and Sylvia went back to Jenny’s and Joe stayed with us. I love having a futon that doubles as a bed so we can have people stay if they need to.

Thursday was the big day! I was so excited to eat good food and be surrounded by family. Dan and Joe got up early to go play in a turkey bowl all morning. I drove over to Jenny’s around 10 to hang out and help with the food (but mostly eat the appetizers). We had a relish tray, a cheese ball  and a shrimp platter to munch on. I feel the need to have shrimp with every holiday now! At one point I was hanging out with Sydney in her room, sitting by her window reading books. At one point I was showing her the dogs in the book saying, “Oh look a doggie, what noises to dogs make?” right then and big golden retriever is sitting by the window listening to story time. It scared me and Jenny walked in at the same time, just as confused as me. We harbored the dog for a bit until we found the owners down the street. He was such a sweet dog and it was fun to adopt him for 30 minutes.

So you know when you go to someone else’s house and it’s doesn’t really feel like Thanksgiving because the food/traditions are different? I didn’t feel that way at all haha! It was just another Thanksgiving with family! This year we planned to fry two turkeys- I was pretty excited to see how to do it and to see if it really does taste different. It was pretty cool to see it frying on the driveway. The turkey was so good! It was moist and flavorful which can be hard to do with turkey because they can be so big. The skin was delicious and crispy. It’s kind of a lot of work to buy/assemble a fryer, get the oil and fry it but on the other hand it tastes better and your oven is free for everything else you’re making! We had homemade rolls, homemade stuffing, green beans, cranberries, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, strawberry pretzel dessert, and FIVE pies! Heaven. Quick note about the sweet potatoes – I have never had yams or sweet potatoes that I’ve actually liked. I usually just eat the marshmallows off of them! Sylvia put extra love into these ones (brown sugar and butter) and they were so delicious! Oh and they showed me how to make these fancy sunrise drinks, they looked so pretty!

After dinner it was a mix of sleeping, football, food coma and cleaning up. Then later it was PIES and games. We had cherry, apple, pumpkin, german chocolate and  banana cream and they were all delicious.

 

Friday was awesome because the weather was so beautiful. A perfect day for the Zoo right? I personally love the Zoo, but it makes me feel better going with little kiddos so I can show my excitement about the animals without looking weird.  The Fort Worth Zoo is awesome and it has tons of animals. I don’t know if we even saw them all. Alex and Sydney liked seeing all the animals and it was fun to watch them at the Zoo. After the Zoo we went to Hard Eight BBQ which was quite the experience! It is a legitimate smoke pit bbq place. You walk in to the smoke house and wait in the cafeteria line. There’s a giant… shed thing that holds all of the meat and the pit master cuts your meat to order. They have brisket, pulled pork, ribs, chicken, sausage, steak, everything! Then you pay by the pound and get your sides. Dan and I shared a tray because we weren’t sure how much to get. This turned out to be just right. It was the best brisket I’ve had yet here in Texas! The only downside is that you smell like smoke when you leave. But at least it’s a good food smoky smell instead of like a cigarette smoke smell.

Later in the afternoon we were going to go to Top Golf and we actually went and looked at it, but the wait was 2 hours so we decided to bag it and just hang out and eat pie instead. It’s a cool concept though. It’s a mix of a bowling atmosphere and a golf game.

It was an awesome week! You know it's a good Thanksgiving when you eat leftovers for the next week after!