Happy Food Appreciation Day

Hey Y'ALL. Happy Thanksgiving! Since we all know there is nothing to celebrate about this ridiculous day, let's spend it appreciating our time off from work and try to have fun cooking, eating and hanging with our families and friends (or feeding the hungry, if that's how you roll).

Anyhow, every year my cousins Wendy and Tammy have about 50 guests over for Thanksgiving at their house in Atlanta. Here is a picture of me being fat, with Top Chef's Kevin Gillespie, owner of Holeman & Finch. If you're within 30 miles of Buckhead, GO TO THIS RESTAURANT and order as much as you can.

Wendy is a chef and is famous for having the best Arepas in the state, while Tammy is a former event planner (she's now on the Board of The Grammys). Together they prep and cook for a week before their raging food party (along with some help from Aunt Susie and myself). After everyone is stuffed and boozed up, my other cousin David leads a game of Mafia, which has become a Cross family tradition. If you want to try this game, you can read his instructions in Vice HERE.

Here is an exciting photograph of the guests, who are all about to DIE. If you've never played it before, just know that couples fight, liars are born, and you can never trust your loved ones again. It gets ugly. At some point Amber tried to execute an 8 year old child. TRUST NO ONE.

I really look forward to this trip each year, as evidenced below...

First off, this is the famed "10 o'clock burger" from Holeman & Finch. They only make 23 per night and people line up at 8pm for them. It's first come first serve. As a HUGE fan of burgers and a former card-carrying member of Gordon Hull's Burger Club, I can confirm and verify that this is the all-time best hamburger I've ever had in my entire life. Just look at what the sight of it did to David and Wendy:

We watched the chef preparing them and tried to figure out the secrets. One thing Wendy realized is that they don't just use ground beef. There is another meat thing in it. Can't remember what. COOL STORY!

This photo of Tobias Funke, the Arepa Queen of Atlanta, and the 10 o'clock burger is steeped in back-story, which I will tell you next time we're hanging at a bar.

My Aunt Susie. This photo makes me miss my mom, but the good news is I'm heading to New Orleans after this trip to see her. HAI MOM!

I came downstairs into the basement/rec room bathroom and found Amber, Keeli and April (pictured) with an Espresso maker sipping lattes. Okkkeeeeeeyyyyyeeeee.

Paloma eating half her weight in turkey

Keeli is Amber's best friend and seriously looks like her twin sister. AND they have the same personality. Brain twins.

Keeli and Russ

My cousin Juli and her bestie Dee. These two have big giant hearts

Kevin brought a brussels sprout gratin that I ate 350 times

Davy Gravy and Pretty Paloma

The entire Cross/Tamblyn clan at Babette's Cafe

These are my top shelf cousins Wendy and Tammy. I love these two people with all my lil Veevers heart!

This is Russ and Bonnie Tamblyn, Amber's incredible, loving, funny parents. Two Thanksgivings ago Bonnie and Russ sang and played songs on guitar. You can listen to Bonnie's hippie mom jams HERE. Also, Russ just got his hand and footprints immortalized at Grauman's Chinese Theatre last week! He'll be in David's next season of The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.

Ps- below is Wendy's awesome WOW Food Truck which will be airing on Eat Street pretty soon. Jesus Christ this is the most proactively promotional blog post I've written in a LONG TIME. But it's family yo, I gotta give them all shouts out for doing the things they are good at doing.

Anyhow, that's enough for now. What was the best thing you ate on Thanksgiving? Gimme the goss!