Our Black Friday Tradition

For so many people the day after Thanksgiving is about shopping, or decorating the house or going to the movies so they have a few hours of being with family without having to talk to each other.  Our family tradition is for friends to come up to the farm and after some outdoor wilderness time we go into the thriving metropolis of Danville, Virginia to have lunch and support the local economy.

For so many people the day after Thanksgiving lunch is about a really good turkey sandwich made with all the leftovers, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mayo and as much turkey as they can keep on two slices for bread.  For us our day after Thanksgiving means one thing, Mexican food, more precisely El Vallarta.

See my Dad is a preferred customer at El Vallarta so going there with him is like getting into the VIP section of studio 54 back in the day.  He has a regular table and all the waiters like him because for Danville, he is a really big tipper.  So whenever we go there we get exemplary service and the Mexican food is not bad too boot.

But today things were a little off.  First, our friends the Toms were in Florida for Turkey day and they were missing their annual trek to the farm.  This caused quite a bit of dissension in their family since Logan would rather be at the farm than almost anyplace and it was sad for my Dad who is particularly fond of all the Toms.  Second, when all 13 of us arrived at El Vallarta we discovered at party of 25 at my Dad’s regular table, who had made a reservation.  We were shocked that it was taken but, even more so that anyone had ever needed a reservation at El Vallarta.

The worst thing about our Mexican food tradition is that I had to sit through the large chips/salsa/queso consumption prior to the arrival of lunch.  But the good news is that El Vallarta has many healthy options if you just tell them to substitute salad for all the rice and beans.  I was thrilled to have a yummy cammerones Cancun, which was grilled shrimp and pineapple — nothing resembling a turkey or potato on any of our plates.

After our lunch and a touch of shopping it was back to the farm for games and children driving any number of recreational vehicles all around the farm while my Dad tells stories about the farm, both historic and current day. It’s a tradition that’s hard to beat.