giving thanks

So today is thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday. It's the one time a year I love being in the kitchen. I love the routine, the tradition of the day.

In keeping with that tradition, yesterday I bailed on work early, picked up Andrew from day care in the middle of his naptime (he was NOT happy that I woke him up) and battled the traffic up to my parents' house. I baked pumpkin bread, made the sweet potatoes and the cranberry sauce (not bad for the self-proclaimed undomestic goddess, huh?). My sister marinaded broccoli, made dips, baked an upside down cranberry cake and is currently fighting with my mom over the mashed potatoes.

Mom has yet to make the stuffing, which is disappointing because I want to start my attempts to try to steal some! Attempt, of course, is the operative word because she has this magic sixth sense about the stuffing. No matter where she is in the house, she knows the exact moment that my dad or I open the oven to pilfer a few pieces of the stuffing goodness. You can hear her screaming "JAIME! MICHAEL! GET OUT OF THE DAMN STUFFING!" from anywhere in the house.

Hubby is chasing Andrew around the house. The parade is on the tv, which will be followed by the dog show. Hubby, at that point, will probably sneak off somewhere and try to watch some football. It just started to snow and Andrew is begging to go outside and ride his bicycle up and down the driveway.

The over-under on my uncle's arrival is anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour late. I've laid odds on him being 45 minutes late. That's usually a safe bet. Sad that this is what we usually do for his arrival time. He was bad on his own, worse when he got married, and hillacious once he had kids.

My grandmother should be arriving within the next hour with the turkey. And this year she's arriving solo. Being without grandpa this year is a big gaping hole that no amount of turkey and stuffing can fill. My dad is sitting on the couch with his laptop watching demos on how to carve a turkey because, this year it will be his job.

There was a big debate over whether to set a place for grandpa, even though he's not here with us. Or whether to have a pumpkin pie in his honor (he was the big pumpkin fan - the rest of us kind of tolerated it). Both those ideas were shot down with an emphatic no by dad...

I'm happy that the family is coming together and that I'll be surrounded by the people I love. But damn I miss him.

Have a great thanksgiving with the ones you love.