Tag Archives: thanksgiving

Food and Drink, Foodie Roundup, The Features, We Love Food
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We Love Food: Thanksgiving 2011 Roundup

Roast Turkey

Roast Turkey
Courtesy of tbridge

You’ve been fighting off a cold. You burned last year’s turkey. You’re feeding far too many relatives than you can count on your fingers and toes. Whatever the reason may be for why you won’t be cooking this year’s Thanksgiving feast, we’ve got you covered with a handy list of what restaurants are offering for Thanksgiving. So take the apron and oven mitts off and relish in the fact that you can watch all the Macy’s Day Parade and football you want come turkey day.

Read the full list after the jump.
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Entertainment, Food and Drink, People, Special Events, The Features, We Love Drinks
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Thankful (for Drinks)

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘flipperman75’

Two weeks til Thanksgiving. Maybe you are staying put in DC and hosting your own dinner. Or you’re heading elsewhere and are faced with the inevitable stress of traveling. In either case, chances are you’re going to need liquid courage. Don’t panic, We Love Drinks is here to help.

Some personal disclosure – my parents are teetotalers. Explains a lot, doesn’t it? For my brother and I, no holiday visit to the parental compound is complete without a trip to the local liquor store, loading up on a whole cart of wine and spirits. He has expensive tastes. Somehow I end up paying. But it’s worth it.

Of course I’m not advocating getting bombed for Thanksgiving! Enjoy the holiday by indulging in some civilized drinks in moderation. I canvassed three local sommeliers for their recommendations of what goes best with the traditional feast, and as with the end of summer wines list culled previously, they’ve responded with some stand-out sips.

Let’s start with Elli Benchimol from Chef Geoff’s, who speaks for most of us when she says, “My Thanksgiving lasts all day, and most of the night, there are usually children running around, as well as adults, and it is an absolute necessity to have lots of wine, not only to keep you sane, but to keep you going.” Continue reading →

Downtown, Essential DC, Life in the Capital, The Features
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We Thank Thee, O DC…

DSC_2512
‘DSC_2512’
courtesy of ‘Ghost_Bear’

Last year, we started a tradition of sorts by telling all of our readers what we’re thankful for in the DC area. We invite our readers to share their own thoughts in comments.

BenR: It’s hard to narrow down what it is about the DC area that I’m thankful for, but I’ll give it a shot…

  • The Washington Capitals, for finding success on the ice – and enthralling an entire city with them.
  • Metro, for being not only a source of transportation but also a weekly source of head-scratching entertainment.
  • The simplistic beauty of our national monuments.
  • Area DC photographers and their openness and willingness to educate, critique, and share.
  • Thought-provoking exhibits such as NMAI’s Brian Jungen and NatGeo’s Terra Cotta Warriors.
  • The Tidal Basin during the blooming of the cherry blossoms.
  • For everyone who works, lives, and plays in one of the greatest cities in the US.
  • Finally, my fellow authors and all our readers – I’m so thankful for all of you; you make this site live up to its name, and then some.

Rachel: There are a few things that I will never cease to love about this city and am thankful for everyday. They include: The view from the Lincoln memorial steps facing the reflecting pool/Washington monument on a Sunday morning, my commute to and from work that consists of a daily tour of embassy row between Ward and Dupont Circle, and President Obama for picking Rahm Emanuel as Chief-of-Staff so that there’s finally a Cubs fan in the White House. Other than that, my friends and family hold the number one spot as far as what I’m actually thankful for this year — but that goes without saying.

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The Daily Feed
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DC in the Mist

Photo courtesy of
‘This is a color photo’
courtesy of ‘erin m’

I just drove home through the city, and it’s such a beautiful night out there that I wanted to share. After all this rain, a half moon is now shining brightly against a dark sky and a diagonal swath of white cloud. The air itself is clear, but a ground fog is welling up in front of the White House, on the Mall, and near the Washington Monument.

Near lights, the air looks diffused with haze. In the shadows, it seems more defined. A white mist rises up a foot or two off the earth, topping off in an even white line. In a way, it looks magical, like DC is set for the movies with manmade special effects. In another way, it looks primeval, like the “swamp” DC was built on (or not) is coming back to life, nature taking over.

In the midst of it all, I saw two children running alongside the base of the Washington Monument, their arms and legs flailing and the spotlights throwing their shadows up high against the stone. I imagined they were here to see family and on their first trip to our nation’s capital. How exciting must that be?

Happy Thanksgiving, DC!

Talkin' Transit, The Features
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Talkin’ Transit: Holiday Travel Tips

Photo courtesy of Daquella manera
Connecticut Avenue, courtesy of Daquella manera

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel days of the year. Here’s some common sense tips to help make your journey a little less stressful – and a whole lot safer.

Chances are if you’re reading this on the day before Thanksgiving, you’re either not going anywhere for the holiday weekend, you’re stuck at work hoping they’ll cut you loose early, or you procrastinated until the last minute and you need to leave five minutes ago. Still, regardless of your situation, I’m fairly sure these tips will come in handy at some point during the next six weeks as the end of the year comes upon us.

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Adventures, Entertainment, Essential DC, Food and Drink, Life in the Capital, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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Share Your Thanksgiving Mishaps

Photo courtesy of
‘OH GOD TURKEY.’
courtesy of ‘ibroadfo’

I’m sure we all have them, or have at least been a party to them. My story involves our next door neighbors nearly setting our apartment building on fire by leaving their bird in the oven a tad too long. There we were, just sitting down to our meal, when the sirens sounded and the firemen were knocking on our door. Luckily, the building didn’t go up in flames, and I believe our neighbors celebrated by hitting up the Chinese restaurant around the corner.

Have any really good Thanksgiving mishap stories? Share them and we can all hopefully learn from our mistakes.

The Daily Feed
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Escape Routes for Wednesday

Photo courtesy of
‘Traffic’
courtesy of ‘C Hale’

By the time Wednesday afternoon rolls around, you’ll probably be ready to head home for Thanksgiving, just like most other DC-area residents.  While we’re all hoping that traffic is flowing as smoothly as in the image above, chances are you’ll be stuck in some congestion along the way.  Luckily, the Washington Post has a list of back-up routes to help you avoid the backups on I-95 and I-66.  Some tips: consider an alternative route to avoid the great hated state of Delaware (from the article: “So much driver anger against such a small state!”), take the scenic route to avoid I-66 traffic, and most of all, just stagger your travel times.   Consider coming back to town on Saturday if possible to avoid Sunday traffic– plus, you’ll get out of one more day of forced family time!

The Daily Feed
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DC Area Thanksgiving Turkey Trots

Photo courtesy of
‘Turkey trot’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

We’re just over a week out from Thanksgiving, so I hope you’re prepared for gluttony and overeating!  There are all sorts of calculators out there that show you how many calories are in your Thanksgiving dinner and how much you’d have to exercise to burn them off.  But forget about those, because a little light jogging on Thanksgiving morning is sure to burn every one of those calories off (that’s my reasoning, at least).  Here are a couple area turkey trots to choose from:

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Thanksgiving Pie Sale Benefits Food & Friends

Photo courtesy of
‘Pumpkin Pie’
courtesy of ‘Bethany Ann Khan’

At the DC foodie happy hour last month, I found out about this great holiday pie sale to benefit Food & Friends, called Slice of Life.  While I’ve never volunteered for Food & Friends, it is a great organization with a great reputation. And we all know that it’s going to be a particularly rough holiday season this year…

If you purchase a pie for Thanksgiving and take it home for you and your clan through the Slice of Life program, 100% of the cost of the pie goes to the foundation. Or, you can donate the pie and the funds directly to the families who need them most.

All the information you could possibly be interested in can be found by clicking this link.

Let me know if you have any questions or, you know, what your favorite pie is. Orders must be completed by this upcoming Thursday, November 19.

You have the choice of five pie flavors: Continue reading →

The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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It’s December Holiday Season Already?

Snowman and Santas at CVS

Snowman and Santas at CVS

What is up with all the Christmas/Hanukkah decorations?!! It was like I blinked my eyes on Halloween, and the holiday elves  turned everything from orange/black to red/white, and moved all orange and black candy and creepy motion activated cackling wall mounts into the $.05 bin.

I’m not an Ebenezer Scrooge, but seriously, give us consumers some more transition time! This whole speed of light switch-a-roo is just way too jarring.

Besides, it’s not like there aren’t other holidays that come between Halloween and Christmas.  What about Veterans Day?!! Shouldn’t CVS be covered head to toe in American flags?!! Think July 4th decorations, but in November.  What about Thanksgiving! Tons of fake cornucopias, stuffed turkeys or pilgrim hats?!!

Until I celebreate these two important and historical holidays that come before the yuletide, I’m saying “BAH HUMBUG!”

Essential DC, Interviews, Life in the Capital, People
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We Thank DC


In This Temple
Originally uploaded by stuckincustoms

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! As per custom with many today, we here at WeLoveDC want to take a moment and share what we’re thankful for with regards to the DC Metro area, our home.

We all wish you a great and bountiful day today, many leftovers for tomorrow, and good shopping deals over the weekend. But most of all, we wish every one of our readers well and toast at our tables to your health, your happiness, and your prosperity.

Our personal “What we’re thankful for about DC” after the jump.

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Adventures, Entertainment, Essential DC, Food and Drink, Special Events
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Extended Weekend: What to Do?

Photo courtesy of F1RSTBORN
Jive Turkey, courtesy of F1RSTBORN

In town for the holidays and not a cook? Looking for some dining options other than wrestling with a big ol’ Butterball and your mom yammering in your ear? Hosting relatives and looking for things to get them out of the house? Or are you an international visitor and don’t celebrate with us Yanks?

We’ve got you covered.

Behold, a quick-and-dirty WeLoveDC look at dining and fun options for the upcoming four-day weekend.

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Essential DC, Talkin' Transit, Travel, WMATA
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Talkin’ Transit: Turkey Time!

Photo courtesy of M.V. Jantzen
Coming and Going, courtesy of M.V. Jantzen

So for the first time since moving down here, my wife and I aren’t driving anywhere for the holiday; since we bought our house this summer, we’re the hosts for this year’s holiday season.

However, I feel your pain, people. If you’re reading this now, you’re either like me and not going anywhere this holiday weekend, or you’re just procrastinating from packing and will most likely get caught in area traffic.

For you lazy bones, I’ve got some tips on alternate road routes, but we’ll knock out a few regional transit items first.

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