Into the Fray

Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday of the year.
Turkey, stuffing, football. Excellent.

When I was a kid, we used to switch back and forth between the Macy's Parade and the Twilight Zone marathon all morning while mom slaved in the kitchen. Awesome.
Our only job was to shred up bread the night before for the stuffing. Easy, can-do!

Now that I'm old and my mom is 635 miles away, I have taken on the task of preparing the family Thanksgiving dinner. I love it.
I eased into the process as a high-schooler when I took on the job of making the pumpkin pies. Piece of cake...er pie.

Once I got married and moved to Arizona, I made a whole shebang dinner for about 20 people. I was oh, five or six months pregnant at the time. I attribute my late-pregnancy cankles to that one day of constant standing up.

But I still love the day, the meal, the family fun...
Like last year...we had Thanksgiving at our house. Bob's mom showed up. She's uh, no good. Suffice it to say, Bob essentially does NOT have a mother, but he does have this woman who comes around, asks to crash with us (we decline) and then takes off back to Albuquerque at least once a year. Here's the family fun part...because his mom was here, Bob was all emotional. And because he's a crazy man, he didn't let himself GET emotional, instead he drank Jack Daniels and made a bonfire. Way to deal.

I'm hoping that THIS year will be semi-normal. Bob's "mom" is not invited, I've already got a turkey, I've done my pre-Thanksgiving practice meal.

Everything is gonna be FINE.....

The worst thing about Thanksgiving is that it is the mental cut-off between fall and winter and therefore between the fall holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving) and the winter holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwaanza, what-have-you). What that MEANS is that folks sit around on Thursday (Thanksgiving) eat a bunch of sleep-inducing turkey, get full on pumpkin pie and yams and then wake up at 3 am to get in line outside Walmart in 27 degree weather (if you're lucky) to go buy TVs for $20 or toys for like a friggin penny.

Though, I must say, I have NEVER EVER engaged in this ridiculous behavior it is quite tempting. If I have Christmas shopping to do I sure as heck if I don't want to do it in December, at all. Stores are MOBBED from Dec. 1 through Dec. 24 and then the customer service desk is mobbed with returns for two weeks after that...INSANITY.

Every year, my brother in law goes through the torture of the post-Thanksgiving day sale (aka Black Friday). I fear that this year I may be cajoled into joining him, that is if I STILL have shopping to do. That is why I am starting MY holiday shopping spree TODAY, a week BEFORE Thanksgiving. Yeah, that's right.

I'm ahead of the curve baby.