The Journey is Half the Fun…? It is always a rather dramatic event, piling my two sisters, brother, parents, and I into the car to venture to my aunt and uncles house in Vacaville. The drive usually takes about two hours, and once my family and I are finally on the road, the first domino in a long trail of boisterous activity falls. Despite the stress and craziness families can bring on, my family is very close, so we have no trouble being ourselves–our absolutely ridiculous goofy selves.
The Excitement of Arriving When we arrive at my aunt and uncle’s house, unload ourselves and our overnight bags (my oldest sister’s bag under-packed, mine over-packed) from the car, and knock at the front door, we are greeted first by my aunt’s high, bouncy laughter. My cousin and uncle follow, faces beaming with similar grins as my aunt and mother laugh and hug each other the way only close sisters will. Goldie, their very old, graying Golden Retriever who thinks she is still a puppy, bounds into the room, howling with a pitch in harmony with my aunt and mother’s squeals of excitement.
Cooking, and Card Games, and Craziness, OH MY! Usually there are 23 of us together to celebrate holidays, and our location varies from house to house over the years. For this year’s Thanksgiving celebration, only 12 of us were able to make it. Though we missed the rest of the family, we still kept our traditions alive and had a wonderful time. As my two of my aunts and one of my uncles cooked our Thanksgiving dinner feast, my sisters and cousin started off the first card game of the night. Now, card games are a common enough pass time, but in a family as boisterous as mine with a considerably diverse amount of personalities, playing cards has become an undying, competitive, hilarious, loud tradition of ours. Did I mention loud? Honestly, this year, after we all ate and started playing cards, I felt sorry for the whole block my aunt and uncle live on. Between my already bubbly aunt getting tipsy, my mom continuously straightening the deck of cards after my other aunt knocks it over just to spite her, and my cousin, sisters, and I getting terrible fits of what we affectionately call “the infamous giggles,” it really gets quite noisy. And the noise that rises from the kitchen table lasts long into the night and doesn’t stop until we’re too exhausted from the insanity and retire to the living room where all us girls watch a movie (or two) and fall asleep on the reclining couches.
Starting a New Tradition When we awoke that Friday after Thanksgiving, we all got ready to start our newest tradition–going to Apple Hill. After an hour drive N/E of Vacaville, we piled out of the cars and into an orchard with trees (and the ground) filled with yellow fall leaves. Apple Hill has a market dotted with white tents where venders sell food, hand crafted jewelry, holiday decor, and more. We walked around the market until our stomachs grumbled us into a shop where they sold all things apple–carmeled apples, apple pie, apple butter, apple cider, apple donuts, apple everything. I think my whole family would agree that the apple donuts alone are worth the drive up there.
It’s not “Goodbye,” it’s “See You Later” After snacking on multiple apple related foods, walking around the shops, and (in my case) taking way more photos than necessary of the beautiful trees all around, we piled back into the cars to go to lunch, after which we gave long hugs and said our goodbyes, eagerly awaiting Christmas when we would see each other again to relive old traditions and create new ones.
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After mentioning so many mouth watering apple treats, it’s only fair that I give you my favorite apple pie recipe that my mom and I bake during the holidays!
Betty Crocker’s Apple Pie Recipe
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash of salt
6 cups thinly sliced apples (about 6 medium-sized apples)
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
Heat oven to 425. Prepare pastry. Mix sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in apples. Turn into pastry-lines pie plate. Dot with margarine. Cover with top crust that has slits cut in it; seal and flute. Cover edge with 3-inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning; remove foil during last 15 minutes of baking. Bake until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust. 40 to 50 minutes. 6 servings per 9-inch pie. 600 calories per serving.
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