The REAL holiday

Ok....so my family is everywhere and encompasses alot of somebody's not related by blood (thank GOD!). I am blessed by the inclusion I enjoy into many families to create a more robust feeling of comfort, home and love. I grew up as a Navy brat so my view of family has boundaries which have become mecurial. What an amazing feeling it is...so thank you if you have put your hand, heart or homes out to me!

Now, with that said....the Creitz family has a holiday. I feel pretty strong about this being important throughout the time I was growing up. I can guarantee it is a time revered by many Americans, but in our household there was a different excitement and enjoyment which gave our day a more holiday feel. Funny, but the man I married comes from a household which celebrated very similarly. Whereas my mother collected her Thanksgiving cut outs with which she would decorate walls and tables, my mother in law has a cache of footballs, goal posts and pom poms which she uses to festoon festivity into her household on that oh holy of all days...SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!

Banal I am sure many of you are mouthing. Yet it truly is a day of hedonism and a relentless exercise in WOOOO HOOOOOOO! There is a feeling of freedom during the Super Bowl. There are no traditions to mindlessly adhere to, there are no rules save for those you treasure, and everyone will enjoy some aspect of the day. It is truly an American holiday....bone crushing sports, nauseausly huge media coverage, extreme consumption levels, and rooting for your choice of winners. So this year, we are celebrating!

For THE holiday, we are flying in a most welcomed and necessary participant....my sister in Philadelpia. She will show up with her GEN-U-INE NFL jersies and her appetite for sports and the true spirit of football. In Utah, we need an infusion of professional sports enthusiasm to build up against the GO UTES ferver building for some bowl game in New Orleans! Go Utes!

With each holiday there are steadfast traditions. Food being the most important for the Creitz (and now Davidson) household. Unfortunately I approach ferver level when it comes to this. In Faye's honor, we have California dip (onion soup mix & sour cream....lifeblood of any party) with ridged chips, and 7 layer dip. Now in our house, 7 layer dip tends to vary on the number of layers and the ingredients of those layers based on 1) who is making it and 2) who is eating it. I am not a fan of guacamole...whereas my husband is a huge fan, so that is a "side". In the past I got fancy with my 7 layers and would use marinated chicken, but as time has passed, I find comfort in plain old hamburger.

In another homage to Creitz food, I have made (with Shawn's expertise) Lumpia. Shawn & I are pretty infamous for our Lumpia. It is a Philipine egg roll that my Canadian mom learned how to make before I was born. In other families, recipes are passed for generations to make sure it is made the same....Shawn & I have certainly walked past where Faye was and emboldened ourselves to become Lumpia effiicianados....but I digress.

In years past, I have brought in the makings for individual pizza's as well as mini hamburgers (slammers as the bar folk say). Our celebrations are fairly limited so this is easily managed. Many years ago when I partook of the grain, we would have jello shots in the colors of the team (augmented of course with various alcohol) and for each touchdown, you would "do" a shot. That one year, we became desperate enough to celebrate at each possession.

Again, I digress. What I have neglected to mention so far was football. In my mind, the SuperBowl starts with the All Madden team. Born within cheering distance from the Oakland/Alamedia County stadium, I teethed on the Raiders and next to Santa, John Madden was the next important portly older man in my life. His philosophy on football was remniscent of what the sport was meant to be....heart, fight, blood and dirt! I still tear up at the sight of Mike Singletary being nominated to the All Madden team as he came out of a play with a chunk of grass in his helmet & the WILD Singletary focus to kick some ass!

The more modern part of the Super Bowl festivities has become the commericals! They are certainly a shot game in their own right. YEARS AGO when commercials started to become more interesting than the game itself, I recall leaving the room to restock my plate DURING the game only to run like hell back to see the commercials. I remember first seeing "You have just won MVP of the SuperBowl, what are you gong to do? We're going to Disneyland!" Now it is just like the game, it is a time of too much money, too much ego, and too little regard for the true love of the day.....and commercials have exceeded themselves in their importance.

The game. It is hard as of late to truly become involved in the game. I remember in the last two games that the tear jerker stats were to the point of being contrived. Are they looking to pull in the female viewers by including heart? Are they working to find the long lost true "underdog" that they dig to find which player has had the most recent family loss? I think as with the withering patheticism of the half time show, that interest in the game is waning....and the producers of the event are just that...desperate engineers paid to re-inflate flagging interest in an over inflated contrivance of a once precious time.

So, regardless of how the rest of the world will celebrate February 1....I am looking forward to eating well, checking out cute butts, and criticizing lame commericals! To each his own....thank God!

Be great to you!
H