Friday, November 30, 2007

Terrific Thursday!

Normally Thursdays are just like any other day ~ shop, cook, clean, repeat the next day. But this week's Thursday was the best! Shane Graham, Cincinnati Bengals 2006 Pro Bowl kicker extraordinaire and a great client, wrote an article for the Cincinnati Post about his Thanksgiving dinner from Yummy~issimo! Personal Chef Service.

Thanksgiving at Shayne's a Blast
Thanksgiving is a time for families and friends to spend the day together and count their blessings.

Some of us on the team are not from the area so our families are back in our hometowns. I have not been home for Thanksgiving in about eight years. We have games that week and practice so making it home is impossible for most players.

Sometimes players' families come to visit, but it's not easy to plan that every year when players sometimes move to a different city each year.

So this year I hosted a dinner for my teammates without family in town and those with family visiting but who live in a hotel and couldn't serve a traditional dinner.

I love to cook but being a single guy I don't cook every night just for myself. I have a chef that prepares a few healthy meals a week for me, so I'm not tempted to eat out every night.

Things worked out for my chef, Debbie Spangler, of YUMMY~ISSIMO! Personal Chef Service, to prepare the entire meal from scratch. Usually she does three meals on Thanksgiving and then has her family meal the day after. This year she spent the whole day at my home.

I had 20 people over for dinner. I had rookies, veterans who just moved to town, other players and their wives and children and staff members for the team that had family out of town.

We watched football, ate a great meal and enjoyed each other's company. It was very nice to be a part of it. I would like to thank Debbie for her time, my teammates and friends for making it a great Thanksgiving. The only downer was my family wasn't there and I missed them. I love all of them.

Thanksgiving was great but Tuesday was the exact opposite. I woke up to the news that Redskins safety Sean Taylor died after being shot in his home. It's a senseless tragedy and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family, teammates, friends. I'll especially pray for a little girl who will have to grow up without knowing her father.

In case you're not lucky enough to personally know Shayne, let me tell you he's a class act and a great human being. I'm the one who is thankful for having him as a client. To learn more about Shayne Graham and his numerous charitable endeavors in Cincinnati, check his website.

As if that wasn't enough to make my Thursday terrific, sweet husband Tim and I were invited to a VIP party on Thursday night that included an open bar, amazing food and a concert. I'll write about it tomorrow. I hope the photos turned out ~ I'm not sure if they were looking blurry from moving around or if I was blurry from unlimited champagne.


1 comment:

Chef Debbie said...

Considering the record of the Carolina Panthers, please tell Shayne to have his Panthers buddies give me a call. Maybe it's their poor diet that is the problem??????? I'm sure that Coach Fox would agree that meals by The Hungry Fox Personal Chef Service can only HELP!!!!! (Is this a coincidence or WHAT????)