I should have posted this earlier in the year, oh well...
1. Every year, on the first week of January, my entire family from both sides plus cousins and half-cousins and everyone in between gets together at my aunt's house.
2. We eat an enormous feast that took the whole family that first week to plan. The feast itself is made during Thursday and Friday and is eaten on Saturday.
3. Lobster is always the staple of the event and four are made with a clam and veggie soup that has to be specially made by my mom who is the only one who knows the secret ingredients.
4. Most of the food is gone, whatever is leftover goes home with whoever claims it first (Which is almost always something the men of the family have claimed responsibility for. They usually bet on a Football game to see who gets what.)
5. Dessert is six large platters of the most amazing food in the world that I don't think anyone else eats. My grandmother calls it Apple Fritz Delight. It is apple slices rolled in a maple syrup-cinnabon drizzle concoction and then rolled in raisins and left to dry. Then they get sprinkled with cinnamon and something else I can't remember. They are served with an almond milk and strawberry smoothie.
6 The family stay around for another week and we go on a trip somewhere. We went to Hunter mountain this year, a very long trip from California.
7. Everyone goes home and raves about the amazing food they won't be able to have until the next year for the whole rest of the month.
8 I got a stomach ache from eating almost half of a platter of Apple Fritz Delights this year, which I have never done before and did regret sorely.
9. My dog Justin loved every bit of the festivities and we even took a photo shoot at the bottom of Hunter mountain with him.
10. My mom doesn't think she did a good job with the meal this year but everyone sent thank you cards and called endlessly, I couldn't use the phone for almost a week.