The Turkey Is Looking At Me

Well friends, it's here. I can't believe that it's already Thanksgiving! Actually, I can't believe that every single month of this year, and the year before, I say "I can't believe it's already (insert whatever month or holiday it is)!" and add on "Time sure does fly by when you get older!"

I remember when the holidays were there and expected, but they held no real responsibility for me. In grade school and high school it was when I looked forward to not having to wake up so early and not having to go to school. In college it just meant that I got to go home for awhile and be away from my sweetheart for too long. My mom always did all the work: the cleaning, stuffing the bird, making the sweet potatoes, at least until I was old enough to manhandle cleaning the damned slippery turkey. THAT lovely job always landed on me...oh, and peeling potatoes. *shiver* I still to this day HATE cleaning the turkey. And if it were up to me, and probably when my mom (God forbid) passes away...I will stop the tradition of stuffing the turkey. I don't even like stuffing and I definitely hate putting my hand up inside of a dead fowl's cavity to scrape any extraneous veins and bloodclots out. Can't have those in the stuffing, ya know! Anyway, I'd inevitably whine about having to be a girl and do this awful job, and my mom would inevitably tell me to get use to it b/c being a woman means doing a lot of nasty jobs. Truer words were never uttered! Right, ladies?

One year I did whine enough to get the job handed over to my little brother Adam. For a little while anyway. All he had to do was cry real hard with those crocodile tears and my mom let him off the hook, leaving it to me again. *sigh* Yuck! I can hear the squatty little wobbler mocking me from the fridge even at I type this. Keep it up, Bird! No matter how squeamish your pimply skin makes me...I always get the last laugh. Mwa-ha-ha-ha!!!

This year I will not get caught up in the perfectionism that usually swallows me whole and leaves me limp by the evening of Thanksgiving day. I'm gonna clean off the chunks of whatever the kids have thrown around, kill as many dustbunnies as I can find and put my efforts into welcoming my family into a Thanksgiving meal that will be made with gratitude for every morsel and definitely the people who will be eating it.

Off to start my list! If you aren't feeling grateful for much at all yet this season...may this help get you started in that direction.