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Justin's 5 Favorite Days of the Year: Part 5 of 5

Thanksgiving 2025 might well be the best day of Thanksgiving football of my life. 

Without any question, it is the best day of my adult life. 

For breakfast, turkey sausage, hash browns, and egg whites. 

And the pregame show where women in pleather pants talk about football.

But they know football, so they are valuable. 

Unlike one female I know: 

No sausage for you, Poop Dog!

Packers at Lions. 

Ruffles Honey Mustard with brisket/cream cheese dip. 

Smoked Sweet Italian Turkey sausage from Taylor's. 

And the Chiefs and Cowboys - my two least favorite teams in all of football. 

My parents had some guests and asked me to smoke a turkey. It was close to 50º. I even considered drinking beer and watching football outside - which I have not done on Thanksgiving since living in California. But in the end I decided to just sit in my recliner and watch football all afternoon. 

The Chiefs lost to the Cowboys. Just when I thought I couldn't hate them any more. 

My third turkey meal of the day: Trader Joe's turkey burger with red-onion relish and steak sauce. 

The Bengals and Ravens as a nightcap.

On Thanks

I am thankful for the Northern New Mexico mountains, and football, and beer, and most of you reading this.

Popeyes Meets Chick-fil-A

Yesterday was my Assistant GM's birthday, and we were going to Hobby Lobby to buy some holiday decorations for work, so I offered to buy her breakfast at Chick-fil-A, because she loves it. 

I like it, it's definitely better than most fast food, but I don't love it. And part of the reason why is that their condiments are too damn sweet. 

So I brought my bottle of Popeyes Sweet Heat (that I keep in my office, of course) and added it to a Spicy Chicken Biscuit. 

It was fantastic.

Farm Rich Stuffed Buffalo Cruncher

I don't get it. 

I love buffalo sauce on fried chicken. 

I don't understand putting it on fried cheese. 

Football Sunday

This is the best slate of Sunday games in several weeks.

I plan to watch: 

- Colts vs Chiefs in the morning

- Eagles vs Cowboys in the afternoon

- Bucs vs Rams in the evening

I started with a breakfast of egg whites, sweet potato hash browns, and chicken sausage while watching pregame shows. 

Leftover Grilled Chicken Tacos from Del Taco for lunch. 

(For as much as I love these things, they really do look disgusting.)

The Chiefs won in overtime, which I did not enjoy. 

Afternoon snack: crackers with Jarlsberg spread and relish. 

The Eagles blew a 21-0 lead to the Cowboys to lose 24-21. I hated that so much that I don't even want to watch the Rams tonight. 

Gluten-free boneless wings for dinner. 

If the Rams blow a 21-0 lead like the Eagles did, I might stop watching football for the rest of the year. 

You know what? 

I'm not going to watch the second half. 

I have watched 9 hours of football today and it has just been one disappointment after another. 

If the Rams win, cool, I have seen the best part, and the day has been salvaged. 

But if they were to lose this one... I could not handle it. 

Saturday FunDay in the Big City and on the Back Patio

It was in the mid-to-high 60s, so it felt like a good day to get out and explore. 

I got donuts are Krispy Kreme, mostly because I wanted to try the new cheesecake donut. It was good, not great. 

The Bosque is the cottonwood forest that borders the Rio Grande from Santa Fe south to El Paso. It is beautiful pretty much everywhere, but the area near Albuquerque is the best. Because the trees have access to so much water from the river's water table, they hang on to their leaves much longer. 

All of the aspens have shed their leaves already, but these cottonwoods are still gorgeous in late November. 

I got my usual favorites at No Bull - brisket burgers, turkey sausage, wagyu bacon, etc. - and you will be seeing them all in the near future. 

I wanted to try Del Taco's new "Del Dorado" chicken taco. 

It was good - but not nearly as good as my beloved Grilled Chicken Tacos. 

The truly cold weather will be here very soon - it's in the 40s as I'm typing these words on Sunday morning - and I will be making Indian food. I picked up these snacks, as well as some frozen Indian goods that you will see soon. 

I picked up these snacks, as well as some Asian frozen goods that you will see soon.

The selection at this place isn't anything mind-blowing, but it's all locally made and it's adorable and I feel a responsibility to support it. I bought some sausage and one other item as a gift for one of you reading this. 

I went to another place I love - the dentist on the left. 

Just kidding. 

I hate all dentists. 

I went to the market on the right. 

I didn't buy anything at the market, BUT...

I did buy some cookies from this lady who had set up a stand outside. 

I drove back home on the backside of the mountains, as I always do unless I am pressed for time. (Which is almost never - why would I go to Albuquerque if I was pressed for time?)

I wrote last weekend that it was the final day of the patio until March. And I believed that, but yesterday was about 60º - and as I have written many times over the years, it feels so much warmer in the sun at 7000 feet -  so I squeezed in one last game: USC vs. Oregon. 

And smoked some chicken thighs. 

What a great Saturday.