Since Ali won't stop bugging me about this

Fine, ok, I'll actually post a blog ....

I'm leaving tomorrow morning to spend a few days with some family. The Italian side of my family has a tradition of getting together before Christmas, making homemade ravioli, spaghetti, polenta, bolognese, all sorts of pasta goodness. The tradition continues by eating every bit of the aforementioned pasta until you lapse into a coma. The coma is actually a little harder to slip into than you would imagine because we are a loud bunch that likes to talk, at the same time, louder than the people next to us .....

So, those of you who know me understand that I really dislike Christmas. The carols are annoying, the crowds are crushing, the mall Santas are disconcerting and the commercialization is nauseating. However, at some point, you learn to ignore all that and focus only on the traditions. Don't even focus on the family, because after all, family gatherings are a party where you don't get to control the invitation list. Everyone has family that annoys them. Of course all of mine are wonderful people and I love them dearly and they never annoy me and angels wipe their bottoms every night because they are that freakin' perfect (just in case they decide to read this blog.

Some families gather around a ham, and all the sides in a lovely family home in the kitchen and eat around a big table while they try to ignore Norman Rockwell sitting in the corner painting their likeness. Other families might gather around a deer carcass and carve out their own slab of meat in a single-wide trailer while drinking their weight in wild turkey and bud light ... all of that's ok.

Unfortunately, some families don't gather, they don't know each other, and some of them might be huddled around a trash barrel under the overpass waiting for the rat to freeze to death so they can eat something that night. And hey, at least you aren't that loser!

Go, enjoy the food, eat until you are comatose, tolerate your family and then talk about them the next day, fill up on wine or beer or moonshine or apple cider, whatever. And whatever you do, don't throw the dead rat you find in your cabinet away! Throw it at the homeless guy, its fun for you and food for him!!!

That's all for now - tune in next week when we discuss the proper way store jars of moonshine ...