This year, its crispy fried duck from the Thai place. After my stepdad died, my mom and I can't get real enthused about the holiday. After the family shrank, through moving to various places for colege retirement and the like,the three of always used to cook something special, if not especially Christmasy. We'd do an etouffee, or a paella or the like. Now, its basically just a "lets get this over with cause it really isn't fun" kind of deal. Oddly enough, that's supposed to be a cheering post. Moral of the story, treasure your family while you can, even if you do want to slap them after the third glass of eggnog.

FQ13