Thanksgiving Madness

I've been fully engulfed in the Thanksgiving madness.  This year there will be 17.  I feared there would be no food if I waited any longer, but I just couldn't shop last night. 

I've embraced my inner morning-person.  Lately I am up no later that 4:30AM to get stupid stuff done so that when I come home at night I can just chill with the fam. 


So by last night I was just too tired to shop.  So my fear sent me to the store at 4:30AM this morning.  Thank goodness for 24hour Safeways :-)  

Turns out they had several extra tons of food, and I bought it all.  If I don't have what I need, I'll just have to improvise.  I sure hope Paula - oh, there she is right on queue talking in my head - will be there during crunch time.  I hope she can help me keep on my feet, lately I get tired.

My biggest anxiety is making sure that all the food is hot.  But by the time you do the last minute stuff and encourage 17 people through a buffet line, its just what it is is...  a cold plate of really yummy food.  Paula tells me that if the food is super-yummy it won't matter that its not burning-your-tongue-hot.

BAM!  Hey, that was a moment of Emeril.  I love him.  As Tony Bourdain said, that fuzzy little guy can really cook!  :-)  Kitchen Confidential rocked - I recommend it.  You gotta love anyone who scourers Scotland for the ultimate haggis.  He's beyond hard core.

Anyway, I got stuff to clean, stuff to prep, and stuff stuff stuff to do to be ready for Thursday.  I love Thanksgiving.  I do it every year.  Its my tradition.  Over the years the crowd has changed, but there's still a core group of us that have been together now for 20 years.  I think its safe to say that we will always have each other.  And we have great memories.  Many of these people remember that last Thanksgiving we all shared when my grandmother was with us, just two months before she unexpectedly passed away.  I'll blog about that some time.  Rocked my world and changed everything.