Brett Miller
ENG 110
9/9/18
Holidays are a fun and special time of the year. You are with your family and friends, laughing and smiling. Christmas a very popular holiday, you get presents from santa and family, and lay around in your pj’s all day. A very important aspect to any holiday and really what it relies on, is the food. The food is the central theme of any holiday gathering. If there was no food the in-laws and grandparents would have nothing to say. “Smells good, what are we cooking,” “this is amazing I need the recipe.” My favorite meal is Christmas Eve dinner at my grandparents house. Since I was little I would look forward to this meal more than christmas day. One year I skipped breakfast and lunch just so I could eat more of the dinner. I sat down at that oval shaped oak wood table and ate and ate and ate. I was like an endless abyss consuming food like a vacuum. The flavors flooded my mouth as I shoveled it down . It was so good… And really filling. I sat there stuffed, my stomach felt like it was going to explode. Then is pretty much did. I ended up eating to much and puking it all back up which didn’t feel to good. My stomach quivered and groaned the rest of the night. The food was so good it was debatably worth it. Grammy and Da’s house is the place to go when you want good food. Da used to be a cook and from what I can tell a very good one. On christmas Eve you walk in that house and those smells would slap you in the face. Grammy made her soft, warm, delicious mashed potatoes that just melt in your mouth. Then the simmering, mouth watering, thick, golden brown, gravy drips on top soaking through the sides and working down to the bottom of the plate. Next is the crunchy corn stripped from the cob and covered in butter that sizzles on contact. Accompanied by fresh garden pick green beans washed and cut, into perfect bite size. Garlic bread is pulled straight from the oven filling the room with an amazing scent. Nothing is better than the abundance of flavor that one receives when you crunch into a golden brown piece of garlic bread. The final and main supporter of this divine meal is the game changer. A pink, fatty, juicy, greasy, slab of Da’s famous prime rib. Now when I say pink, I mean it sometimes still twitches because of how barely cooked it is. I never would of eaten it that way if I didn’t see Da eat it like that. When I was young Da and I did everything together. We golfed together, watched football together and threw the baseball and football in his backyard. He was my best friend and I looked up to him as I still do today, Recently these meals have been even better because of him. A lot has happened in these last couple years and during christmas eve he is always so happy. It might be that our family comes over or that he just likes to cook or maybe both. Seeing him jolly and smiling makes the food taste a little bit better. It’s not just him though, this meal brings together my family. My sister went to college in Nashville and now lives down there. Her and I are very close but it is obviously hard to see her a lot. I always know that during that time and for that meal I get to see her again. My dad is a traveling businessman and I’ll only see him maybe three or twice a week. When he is home he is on the phone talking to what seems like every person on the planet. The amazing thing is he works so hard at his job and still works even harder at being a good husband and a great father. I worry about him a lot because he is always very stressed and on edge. It could eventually really affect him medically as it already has. During this meal he turns back into himself, smiling and joking just like I remembered him when I was younger. With that sarcastic grin and just pure joy in his eyes. My mother and her mother Grammy are the exact same people. They couldn’t be any place better then with our family which is something I love. They don’t need anything fancy or over the top we could eat mcdonalds and they would still have smiles ear to ear because all they want is to be around everyone they love.
It definitely isn’t a cheap meal or something that I could make but it definitely is worth it because it taste so good and creates a special moment every year. Even if it’s only for twenty minutes I hold on to if for 365 days.
When I asked my grandfather about his relationship to the dish he answered “It was the meal I had growing up on christmas eve. I know how to make it and you seem to love it. Why change something if it ain’t broke.”
I then asked why do you think I like the dish. “Because I made it and whatever I make is the best.”
I also asked did it taste better as a kid or now? “Definitely now because I think I cook it better and now that I make it for my kid and her kids I appreciate it more.”
