We've got spirit, yes we do.

We're hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house tomorrow with my mom and stepfather, my sister and her husband, and their three kids. I love to cook in general, but I especially love the big holiday meals. Even when I lived in Indiana away from the bulk of my family I still put enough food on the table for a small army. My son starts to eagerly anticipate holiday dinners weeks before they will take place, and it's largely due to the existence of mashed potatoes. He'll tell random people at the grocery store that there are mashed potatoes on the horizon. He has seen what the future holds, and he's here to tell you - there are mashed potatoes there. They're in his drawings at school. I find him staring off into nowhere sometimes, and when I ask what's on his mind his answer is "mashed potatoes." He knows I only buy potatoes three times a year, and dammit ... one of those times is Thanksgiving. This morning before we left the house he caught sight of the two 5lb bags of potatoes in the pantry and his eyes literally sparkled with glee. They're on the premises, people! There they are, in their little plastic prisons, waiting for someone to viciously remove their skin, drop them into scalding hot water, then pulverize the living crap out of them. It's a beautiful thing.

A couple of weeks ago while I was looking for a recipe, I saw these pine cone turkeys on the Martha Stewart website. These particular ones were made with small pine cones, but I had a bunch of large pine cones from a Fall centerpiece that I took apart. Armed with a bag of feathers and some pipe cleaners, I sat down at the table on Sunday night and crafted six of these little feathery creatures for our Thanksgiving table:

Here's the whole family together:

It was fun for the first two or three turkeys, but after that it became a bit of a chore. Feathers are messy - and this really should have dawned on me sooner. Like right around the time I was buying a bag of feathers. Adding glue to the equation didn't help matters much. By the time I was done it looked as though I'd spent the evening brutally attacking a flock of birds at my dining room table.

We also put up our Christmas trees this past weekend. One in the living room:





And for the past three years I've always threatened to decorate my second tree but then I never get around to it. Mostly because one of my cats (not naming any names but it's the ORANGE ONE) has an affinity for plastic pine needles and shiny things. When I was out shopping a few weeks ago I found a big box of shatterproof (WOO!!) ornaments for under $20. I couldn't really turn down a deal like that, and the worst that can happen is I have to pick up a few ornaments every once in a while. It doesn't solve the problem of him physically EATING the tree, but it does eliminate the possibility of him eating broken glass. Which he would. You probably think I'm kidding but I'm not.

We set the second tree up in the sunroom because we'll be setting the kids' table out there for Thanksgiving dinner. It's on its own heater, it has direct access to the backyard, and it's far enough away from the adult table that my mom's head won't explode upon realizing that four kids make a lot of noise and sometimes exhibit poor table manners:





Since my sister is coming up for Thanksgiving this year we'll be celebrating Christmas with her at the same time, which is why we aimed to get the Xmas decorations up so early. Also I don't need much of a reason to decorate for Christmas. Basically I just spend 11 months waiting around for this time of year to arrive.

For the mashed potatoes, of course.

Happy Thanksgiving!