guess what?

guess what my favorite holiday in the whole wide world is? and it's almost here?

that would be thanksgiving...my most loved holiday of all....i think of the beautiful browned turkey, stuffing and cranberries...sparkling crystal and china...polished silver carefully placed on a crisp white tablecloth...

it is my time...the one time of year where i pull out everything beautiful from my cupboards for the table...the heirlooms passed down through my family...the only time that i use the linens and demand manners from this house full of male bodies...the time where i remind them of the finer and nicer things in life...

i pour over my new country living magazine....ahhhh, pretty holiday table displays. i'm inspired to have the most beautiful table that i've ever had before...and certainly this year i can make some things to make it extra special...those place cards are so pretty and the flowers in the cones would be so special...

now...here comes the screeching sound made from the needle running over an album (if you remember those)...

and now enters my real life thanksgiving...

the turkey is never ever done...we sit patiently for hours, year after year for the little guy to finish his magic in my oven...still to this day we've never figured out why it takes a couple of hours longer than it should, it just does, year after year...and it is something to ponder since most things i burn in a rather short amount of time...

the appetizers are long gone...and dishes are piling up high in my itty bitty kitchen already...as we move around the kitchen there are always heads hitting the pans from the hanging pot rack - bumping them time after time after time....we are all circling around each other to get through the narrow pass from the pan rack to the table between the animals...without falling...

the dogs are circling...making you feel like they are a pack of wolves...as soon as they are herded out the door, after much tripping and perhaps swearing....they somehow find there way back in through another door...they seem to have magical tactics on thanksgiving day...

hubby pulls off the skin from the turkey if he thinks i won't catch him, thinking the little bit will be worth my yelling at him to just stop it...scraps are thrown to the pets as i yell for them to stop it before the dogs explode all over the room...pleads from them all..."but it's thanksgiving" they say...

the tablecloth seldom actually ever touches the table for there always seems to be a lack of either an ironing board or iron...or both

we gather around our teeny tiny table - extra seats are added so that we are just about sitting on each others laps...and then somebody always needs to get back up to get something...and this causes an effect, everyone has to get up or readjust...and make sure the left handed ones are sitting next to each other...

and well, with my cooking...we know the rolls will always burn...the turkey will never get done...the potatoes will be lumpy for i own only a hand masher...we will be eating in sessions as food is eventually done and if it isn't ruined...i've somewhere misplaced my cooking abilities...i'm not sure what happened, it just happened...

but with all that madness...it still is my most perfect holiday...just having the family all together in one place - i couldn't want anything more...and the crystal, well it does look so pretty, and the china is so special and wonderful under any circumstances...