Switching Gears

OK, I can hardly stand it. I'm shaking in my elastic-waisted pants. Now that Halloween's over, that means (I'm cheering inside) THANKSGIVING! My favorite holiday EVER! I love the classic Turkey Day line-up and I can't deviate from it or I'll die. One year when I lived in New York City, a bunch of us who didn't go home for Thanksgiving got together and made our own, and we bickered like little kids about what would make it into the menu because we were all stuck on our own traditions. Everyone ended up bringing pie. So we had tons of pie and wine. And a little turkey. Anyway, the traditional line-up in our family is turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, cauliflower with white sauce that we call "gookagollie", mashed potatoes, yams and I have to have a bit of everything on the fork for the perfect bite every time. And it's not the actual items, but the way they're cooked every year that I love. And then there's the pumpkin pie. But one of my favorite things, besides the food of course, is the fact that this year, we have a lot to be thankful for. Like the one more place setting that we'll have at the table this year, for a tiny little guy who'll have ground up turkey and yams and smear it all over his face in his high chair, as part of his first Thanksgiving ever. I'm very excited. Can you tell?