Normal people have social media envy when seeing their friends’ new cars or luxurious vacations. Not me. I’m happy for those people.

But when someone shares the precious moment of their children indulging in a culinary classic like The McDonald’s McRib for the very first time ……….. well that will make me greener than a Shamrock Shake with envy.

To be honest, I’ve never tried either of those seasonal delights before, (it always grossed me out that McDs shapes loose meat to look like a rack of ribs when there are no actual bones in it) but when I saw the look of my friend’s son’s face after taking his first bite, I knew I had to have it.

My family was going to have “choose your own adventure (CYA)” for dinner last night. CYA is when PJ doesn’t feel like cooking and well, I’m not going to do it 😹, so everyone eats whatever they want. But after seeing the pure joy those McRibs brought to this family, I knew I had to do it for my own (and I really really really wanted one for myself too).

Some context: Food choices are extremely important in the Petti home. Every Thursday we get take-out and rotate who gets to choose the restaurant. We usually decide what we’re going to eat the next Thursday while eating the current Thursday meal.

So I sat my family down and said, “Listen, tonight is Choose Your Own Adventure. I want to surprise you all with something instead but you have to trust me that I think you will like it. Do you all agree to trust me?”

My oldest son couldn’t weigh in because he was still upstairs in school, but he would eat a shoe if it was smothered in bbq sauce, so I wasn’t worried about him. The other 2 had to hem and haw, of course.

“What is it?”

“I’m not telling you. It’s a surprise.”

“What if we don’t like it?”

“Then you have CYA.”

“Will there be honey mustard sauce?”

“I’m not telling you. You just have to trust me! Look, either you trust me or you do CYA. God! Live a little!!”

“Ok fine … I’m nervous.”

🙄 😂

I got 5 McRibs, 5 medium fries, and a 20-piece (just in case the ingrates wouldn’t even try the McRib.)

When I laid it out on the table, they were unsure and suspicious but I think they were starving, and hey, it’s McDonald’s, how bad can it be? (I can feel all you health food people judging 😂)

PJ was shocked that I never had one before. What can I say? I’m like my kids and stick to what I like 🤷🏻‍♀️

We gobbled them up in 5.5 seconds. Everyone agreed that it was deeelicious!! Drenched in bbq sauce with the perfect amount of pickles and a sprinkling of chopped onions. (This is actually false advertising because onion slices are shown in the ad, but I was ok with it.)

So now along with hot cocoa, Charlie Brown, holiday music, and decorating together, the McRib is officially a Petti Family Christmas tradition – and ba da ba ba baa I’m lovin’ it!❤️