{"id":148,"date":"2017-12-12T00:30:22","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T00:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/?p=148"},"modified":"2018-01-14T13:54:06","modified_gmt":"2018-01-14T13:54:06","slug":"the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"The Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prologue<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started this journal in the early spring and it really got going during the summer months.\u00a0 The rest of the family are summer people.\u00a0 They enjoy lounging on the beach for hours at a time.\u00a0 I’m not a huge fan of the beach, but I have found some things about summer that I enjoy like fishing, kayaking (and fishing, canoeing (and fishing), and attempting to swim across our local lakes.\u00a0 That last one makes it tough to fish, but I did find and retrieve a rod once while swimming, which was cool.\u00a0 The point is, while this journal was conceived and nurtured during the spring and summer months and it has helped me to become more comfortable with summer, my absolute favorite time of the year is the 3 month period of October, November, and December.<\/p>\n

Journal<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the laziness of summer and the craziness of September, the calendar flips to October.\u00a0 Everything starts to smell and taste like pumpkin spice.\u00a0 There are signs that Christmas is just around the corner.\u00a0 Mainly, people who complain that Christmas is just around the corner.\u00a0 Speaking of early grinchiness, both Christine and I have recently discovered that Aiden is a bit of a Scrooge.\u00a0 She tried to listen to Christmas music on her drive to work and he wondered out loud, “Why is this on?!”\u00a0 I was watching a Chopped episode with him and Quinn and a Christmas commercial came on and he shouted, “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet!”<\/p>\n

To be fair, he might have gotten this attitude from me.\u00a0 It is only recently that I’ve mellowed on the whole Christmas before Thanksgiving thing.\u00a0 I know that there is Facebook evidence of me chastising Wal*Mart for their early display of merchandise.\u00a0 My cousin tried to rationalize with me, which obviously never works with a person that is being irrational.\u00a0 Maybe it planed a seed, though, that has blossomed into my new attitude about the holidays.\u00a0 Honestly, it is most likely just my antisocial and contrarian attitudes that have turned me around, but we can give Mark some credit, too.<\/p>\n

There will be plenty of time for winter and Christmas.\u00a0 If I’ve learned anything about kids and winter in the northeast, it is that I go from 0 to “Shining” in only a matter of weeks.\u00a0 But, more on that cheerful transition to come.\u00a0 This article is about Halloween and Thanksgiving.\u00a0 Look, I know that Thanksgiving is not technically an outdoor holiday.\u00a0 Neither was Halloween this year, to be honest, but more on that later.\u00a0 I include Thanksgiving both because we recently celebrated it and it is one of my favorite days of the year.<\/p>\n

\"\"
I took this picture at the move theater when we went to see Wonder and posted it to the 2GG Instagram feed with the caption “Food, Football, and Family (no matter how messed up)” because that’s what’s great about Thanksgiving.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What’s funny is that this year Christine asked at the beginning of November if it would be stupid to have a turkey dinner so close to Thanksgiving.\u00a0 While it might have been, I shrugged and decided that it would be worth the risk of ruining actual turkey day.\u00a0 Aside from the fact that it didn’t ruin anything and we still enjoyed the second turkey a month later, I got the added bonus of cooking my own turkey.\u00a0 It didn’t quite go as well as I hoped because I undercooked it, but it turned out okay and got me warmed up to get into the holiday spirit.<\/p>\n

So, what’s the big deal about cooking my own turkey?\u00a0 We used to host Thanksgiving and her parents did Christmas.\u00a0 Ever since learning how to cook at Friendly’s (well, that’s where I refined my skill.\u00a0 Don’t laugh!), I have taken pride in being able to cook.\u00a0 Since Thanksgiving is such a big and important meal, I especially wanted to do a good job.\u00a0 Heck, I even got offended when the topic came up in one of my classes.\u00a0 A student said that they didn’t even like turkey that much.\u00a0 I put on my “fight me” voice and assured them that they’d love a turkey that I cooked.\u00a0 Though ultimately unconvinced, we joked that we should have a Thanksgiving dinner for the class.\u00a0 All jokes aside, that isn’t happening.\u00a0 Two turkeys in a month is one thing, but three is a crime against humanity.<\/p>\n

So, if I’m so good at Thanksgiving, why have I been demoted?\u00a0 Well, it is less of a demotion (that’s exactly what someone who was demoted would say) and more “life goes on”.\u00a0 First, my wife isn’t that keen on hosting.\u00a0 We have 3 kids.\u00a0 Her sister and husband now have 2 kids.\u00a0 Her parents have a house that is much more suitable for hosting company.\u00a0 Our house is bigger, but they recently remodeled and therefore, their house just flows better for big parties.<\/p>\n

And so it is that I no longer am in charge of Thanksgiving dinner.\u00a0 It’s fine because I usually get a chance to do a turkey at least one other time during the year.\u00a0 Oh!\u00a0 One last thing about turkey and then we can get on to candy.\u00a0 I have told this on more than one occasion.\u00a0 I picked up the turkey (something in the range of 22-25 pounds, so hopefully it redeems me a bit that I undercooked it) at the local grocery store for 16 dollars.\u00a0 16 dollars and it fed our family of 5 for 3 meals!\u00a0 The initial turkey, then soup, and finally turkey melts.\u00a0 I seriously don’t know why people don’t buy more turkeys.<\/p>\n

Okay, on to ghouls, ghosts, and candy.\u00a0 I mentioned earlier that Halloween wasn’t an outdoor holiday this year.\u00a0 Most years, we engage our kids in the weird ritual of knocking on someone’s door and then threatening them unless they bribe you to leave them alone.\u00a0 We didn’t do that this year.\u00a0 The past few years, it hasn’t been the best in our town for trick or treating.\u00a0 There’s really only one street that has participated and last year, even that one was dead.\u00a0 One of our friends had the idea to have a kid Halloween party instead and we were ready for a change.\u00a0 It didn’t hurt that they live in the town where Christine and the boys go to school, which was hosting a party in the town hall before and that trick or treating has been lame lately.<\/p>\n

The party was fun for the kids.\u00a0 They got to eat pizza, hang out with their friends, make slime, and played party games like mummifying one another, glow stick ring toss, and pin the boo to the ghost.\u00a0 It was less fun for us, but we did get to act like kids and take the toilet paper that was left over after making mummies and throw it all over the yard.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that only lasted about 5 minutes or so and the homeowner decided to play adult and make us all stop.<\/p>\n

Epilogue<\/strong><\/p>\n

Look, I get that Halloween is a holiday for the kids, and the party was fun, but our kids still wanted to trick or treat.\u00a0 Christine even took them out after we got home to hit a few of the local houses.\u00a0 I mentioned that it would be fun to do the party the weekend before Halloween and then trick or treat on the actual night.\u00a0 The hosts of the party said that avoiding trick or treating was the point of the party.\u00a0 So, if the party is on Halloween again, we will either miss it or show up fashionably late.\u00a0 The town does a group trick or treat after the party, so maybe we will go along with that and then hit up the party.<\/p>\n

Plus, it was a bit of a controversy that we skipped trick or treating.\u00a0 Christine’s sister, husband, and kids were disappointed that they weren’t able to go with our boys.\u00a0 So, we will most likely end up going with them next year.\u00a0 I just don’t understand why we can’t have the best of all worlds.\u00a0 Oh well, all the soccer mom magazines tell me that I can’t have it all.\u00a0 That doesn’t mean that I won’t try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prologue I started this journal in the early spring and it really got going during the summer months.\u00a0 The rest of the family are summer people.\u00a0 They enjoy lounging on the beach for hours at a time.\u00a0 I’m not a huge fan of the beach, but I have found some things about summer that I … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Holidays”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[47,44,45,46],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays","tag-family","tag-halloween","tag-thanksgiving","tag-the-holidays"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Holidays - One Guy Outdoors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Holidays - One Guy Outdoors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Prologue I started this journal in the early spring and it really got going during the summer months.\u00a0 The rest of the family are summer people.\u00a0 They enjoy lounging on the beach for hours at a time.\u00a0 I’m not a huge fan of the beach, but I have found some things about summer that I … Continue reading "The Holidays"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"One Guy Outdoors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-12T00:30:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-14T13:54:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/jacks.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2122\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1415\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"shawnlucas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"shawnlucas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/\",\"name\":\"The Holidays - One Guy Outdoors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/jacks.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-12T00:30:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-14T13:54:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/#\/schema\/person\/010a87f26ef203fdde26ae680e3fca62\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/jacks.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/jacks.jpg\",\"width\":2122,\"height\":1415},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Holidays\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/\",\"name\":\"One Guy Outdoors\",\"description\":\"Sharing the Natural Beauty of Our World\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/#\/schema\/person\/010a87f26ef203fdde26ae680e3fca62\",\"name\":\"shawnlucas\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bfee1bda194dfa040ad41e399fd074019b68a77f85502ef90b80ce1e3bb64813?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bfee1bda194dfa040ad41e399fd074019b68a77f85502ef90b80ce1e3bb64813?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"shawnlucas\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/author\/shawnlucas\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Holidays - One Guy Outdoors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Holidays - One Guy Outdoors","og_description":"Prologue I started this journal in the early spring and it really got going during the summer months.\u00a0 The rest of the family are summer people.\u00a0 They enjoy lounging on the beach for hours at a time.\u00a0 I’m not a huge fan of the beach, but I have found some things about summer that I … Continue reading \"The Holidays\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/","og_site_name":"One Guy Outdoors","article_published_time":"2017-12-12T00:30:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-01-14T13:54:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2122,"height":1415,"url":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/jacks.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"shawnlucas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"shawnlucas","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/","url":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/","name":"The Holidays - One Guy Outdoors","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/jacks.jpg","datePublished":"2017-12-12T00:30:22+00:00","dateModified":"2018-01-14T13:54:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/#\/schema\/person\/010a87f26ef203fdde26ae680e3fca62"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/jacks.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/jacks.jpg","width":2122,"height":1415},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/2017\/12\/12\/the-holidays\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Holidays"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/","name":"One Guy Outdoors","description":"Sharing the Natural Beauty of Our World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/#\/schema\/person\/010a87f26ef203fdde26ae680e3fca62","name":"shawnlucas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bfee1bda194dfa040ad41e399fd074019b68a77f85502ef90b80ce1e3bb64813?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bfee1bda194dfa040ad41e399fd074019b68a77f85502ef90b80ce1e3bb64813?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"shawnlucas"},"url":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/author\/shawnlucas\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.2guysgaming.net\/outdoors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}