To my mother, sister and I, Thanksgiving is The Holiday. We start planning months in advance. We write out a guest list, menu, shopping list, job assignments, and table decor. We call, text, and email ideas, suggestions and other plans. We even have sit down meetings to go over our notes. Yeah, it sounds a bit obsessive but its what we do. We love doing things big, and everything about Thanksgiving is just that; big food, big family, big laughs and big love.

This year things started off as they always do… except for all of the disasters along the way.

Disaster #1: After a couple of weeks of planning a big surprise for my mother, I let it slip the day before that one of her favorite cousins was flying in from North Carolina. I felt like an idiot, but we were able to trick her again when his flight was delayed. We told her it was canceled and that he wasn’t going to make it.

Disaster #2: My mother and a different cousin stayed up all night drinking the night before and failed to notice that the oven wasn’t on when they put the turkey in at 4am. Thankfully my sister noticed at 7am, and got it started.

Disaster #3: Someone, actually several someones spilled that Cousin Ricky was still coming. Several people confessed to letting it slip. By the time he arrived, only ONE person out of 25 was surprised.

Disaster #4: My mother turns off the oven. Why? No one knows for sure. The turkey was still in there. She doesn’t know what she did, but we all saw her pressing buttons. By the time we noticed it was off, it was too late for it to get done in time. No problem. We had a back up turkey ready to go (and I bet you thought all that planning was pointless!!) and brought it out back to fry. We move on, putting the mac and cheese and roast beef in the oven.

Disaster #5: The oven stopped working all together! So, we gathered up the roast beef, yams, and the rest of the stuff that needed to go into the oven, and haul it across town to my house. Set the dial, pop it all in, and head back to my mother’s house.

Disaster #6: That didn’t work either. Apparently you cant shove 6 aluminum pans in an oven set at 350 and expect stuff to cook in an hour and fifteen minutes. Who’d a thunk it! So we returned with semi raw food. Thankfully by then they had the other oven working.

By the time we had everything cooked and warmed and ready to serve, it was 6pm. It may as well as been midnight! We normally eat very early, then continue to graze the rest of the day. On a normal Thanksgiving, I would have eaten three times, and taken a nap by 6 o’clock!!

They say good things come to those who wait, and that anything worth having is worth fighting for, and we sure as Hell were not going down without a fight! Despite all of the drama, we laughed and played the blame game and made wonderful memories for years to come. The food was amazing, and the company even better. We had a fantastic day, full of belly laughs and lots of love. It was exactly what the holidays are all about.

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