Skip to main content

Friendsgiving - Juice Boxes

A little while ago, the Mild Wife and I decided to host some friends for a Thanksgiving celebration (a "Friendsgiving," if you will). We figured we'd play it straight for this particular outing, so we offered to make the turkey. Still, other folks were inevitably going to ask what they should bring, so we let them pick something that reminded them of home cooking. Basically, it was more of an excuse to sit, talk, eat, and be merry than an expectation that they bring their culinary A game.

This, however, led to a discussion about what to pair the turkey with. We had lots of options, and everyone loves a good side dish at Thanksgiving. Heck, some people care only for the side dishes. So, we put a bit more thought into what else we were going to make that day. We did ultimately settle on a few items that were a hit (including the infamous cheesecake), but the bit that really led to some laughter the beverage selection.

You see, we had a combination of folks at the party, including some munchkins. That meant that we had to have at least something that they could consume. Alcohol is fun and all, but it's an adult beverage. We couldn't very well serve wine to two-year-olds. We needed something else. In the end, we settled on juices boxes. Honest Kids juice boxes.

The minute we brought it up, I was sold. I loved juice boxes as a kid, and even hearing them mentioned immediately turned me into a six year old ago. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I suspect it was basically something like, "cool! We should totally do that!" Like I said, I am a big fan of juice boxes.

The real fun, though, began when folks started to show up on the day of Friendsgiving. The first people to show had a young daughter, barely fourteen months old. That little girl had never even had juice before, but she apparently paid enough attention when the items were being described that she caught the word "juice." So, the munchkin who had never tasted juice and had clearly never consumed one of these juice boxes was now grabbing at, and asking for, "juice." I remember her mom exclaiming, with more than a tad mirth in her voice, "you've never even had one of those!" It was quite the chuckle.

The next pair of folks to show up were a) adults and b) munchkin-less, so we figured they'd end up partaking in other beverages. One of them did, but the other one immediately grabbed a juice box. I couldn't help but laugh. He had reacted in roughly the same way I had, so he was also partaking in the juice box offering. I remember him saying something like, "I like juice boxes." Fortunately, we had more than enough to accommodate everyone, adult and munchkin alike. It was just funny to simultaneously watch a toddler asking for juice as a grown man happily sucked one down a few feet away.

Now, the Mild Wife and I intentionally abstained from the juice boxes during the night of the event, just in case it became a full-on fad and everyone decided they wanted one. However, we ended up having a few left-overs, and the Mild Wife and I sampled them a few days later. We weren't about to throw them out simply because they hadn't been consumed on the actual day of Friendsgiving, so they just sat in the fridge for a bit. When we noticed them again, we decided to give them a go.

You know what the Honest Kids juice boxes taste like? Watered down juice. They intentionally don't make them that sweet, so that the munchkins don't get hopped up on sugar. I know that by a different name: Baby Juice. Yup, that trick that I've seen parents employ for years got turned into a commercial product. I laughed and laughed when I realized that I wasn't only drinking a juice box, I was drinking baby juice.

You better believe that's not the last time we are going to buy those juice boxes.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New York City Trip (Day 3)

By the third day of the trip, I was tired enough from the previous day's adventures/subway rides that I felt like sleeping in. And sleep in I did. I think I woke up at something like 11:30 or noon. Of course, that meant that a later start to the day, which started the vicious cycle all over again. By the time we rolled into Manhattan, it was about two in the afternoon. I had tentatively set aside Sunday to see something on Broadway, so we headed over to the tkts booth for discount tickets. There were actually various 3PM options, and after mulling our options, we figured it'd be a good idea to catch one of those. We settled on The Toxic Avenger , which was actually an off-Broadway option. However, we hadn't eaten yet, and the show started about 15 minutes after we got our tickets. Enter the food carts. There happened to be one right outside the theater, and the guy charged a little bit of a premium for the convenience. Still, I was hungry, and I had yet to try...

Dreams

Normally, I don't eat very many sweets. I tend to eat pretty generous portions, but I generally prefer savory food over sweet. In fact, I usually prefer things half as sweet when possible. My preference doesn't have anything to do with health reasons, it's just one of those things that I've always liked better. That said, I do inevitably eat dessert, particularly if I'm out with other people. My stance towards dessert is roughly equivalent to those who are social drinkers . If other people want to munch on something for dessert, I'm not about to cross my arms and refuse. That'd be just a tad gauche. So, I do eat some dessert. I even have a few standby favorites that I'll usually order when presented with them (brownies, creme brulee, and apple pie). But left to my own devices, I'm not about to go hunting for dessert. Apparently, this means that the sugar can really mess with my system under the right circumstances. As I've discovered, ...

Where Do I Go?

As the days of COVID-19 are dragging on, we are having to make more adjustments to our usual routines. Some of these changes are so mundane that I haven't mentioned them at all in this blog, while others have lead to some pretty funny anecdotes . That's probably par for the course, since you wouldn't expect a global pandemic to be all giggles. As it turns out, however, not all of the anecdotes happen to us directly. Having to socially distance and remotely do things has actually led to at least one goofy episode that we found out from afar. You see, it was our niece's birthday recently, but we couldn't visit her because of the aforementioned social distancing. So, we figured we'd ship her a present and call her on her birthday. We couldn't be there in person, but we could still wish her well and try to make her feel special on her birthday. Given that shipping times have been erratic the last few months, we ordered the present with plenty of time, and it arr...