Spice Up Your Holidays!

Holidays can be stressful. If the going gets rough and tough, take three deep breaths, pour yourself a cup of your favorite holiday spiced tea (Drink the Leaf Organic Chic Chai works for me), and take a moment for yourself. Everyone has experienced Thanksgiving nightmares, anxiety and embarrassing moments during the holidays. Right? Please humor me, and tell me you have…

We have quite a few cherished memories that keep us giggling during the holidays when the tasks become unbearable. We remember fondly the year we forgot the most coveted holiday gravy. Let’s just say, we were not popular with our guests that time around. Then, there was the year that the Tea Drinker was sick with the flu (I refused to cancel the dinner), and I kept trooping in and out of the bedroom peppering him with questions about how to cook a turkey. That year, I was not very popular with my husband. Or the time, I over served my guests with plenty of wine, so much so, that one of my dear friends became a fixture on our couch for the next two days. Now, this made us extremely popular!

But last year’s experience takes home the prize. After attending a friend’s Thanksgiving pig roast, we were craving the real deal: Turkey. The Tea Drinker and I set out to have the perfect cozy holiday meal at home, just the two of us. We have had many years of cooking this meal together, and jumped right into setting up our timeline, shopping list, and splitting the duties. The menu: turkey, mashers, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, brussel sprouts, and pumpkin pie. Simple. Wine is never a problem, and always flowing. What could go wrong?

Table set, candles lit, music on, wine poured, the only thing left to do was carve the turkey. Hmm…but this turkey looked strange. I commented to my husband about the gap between the crispy skin and meat. Actually, where was the breast meat?! Is this turkey defected? I grumbled that I was going to give the Whole Foods' butcher a tongue lashing. Come on, an organic turkey looks like this? Emaciated?


Defeated and frustrated, we settled for a few bites of meat, and decided to go with the turkey legs. Everything tasted great, but we were still miffed about the “weak” bird. After a bottle of wine, and the dishes were put away, I heard the Tea Drinker meekly groan from the kitchen, “Honey, could you come in here?”. My husband was staring down at our starved turkey. He squeaked out, “The turkey bird is upside down.” All that delicious breast meat, that we gave up on finding, was nice and moist on the bottom of the roasting pan. Boy, he was embarrassed, and I was in hysterics. He swore me to secrecy, but I am pretty sure he does not read my blog, anyways.


This year my Drink the Leaf Chai tea moments will be extra tasty; I am grateful that my life is right side up, and I have a teeming cup of memories to keep things light hearted and fun.


** Drink the Leaf is offering 15% off Organic Chic Chai & Herbal Masala Chai. Enter "turkey" in the coupon code. Click Recalculate. Offer expires Wed, November 25th at midnight.