We Gon' Rock This House

I'm officially hosting Thanksgiving!!!

This is very exciting for me, and a lot of pressure.  There are so many amazing culinary matriarchs in my family who generally refuse to relinquish the Thanksgiving reins, and that's why i had to reach the responsible age of 30 before they let me give it a go.

Actually, they let my sister Kay be in charge two years ago, and she was much younger than 30.  So i'm not sure what that says about my skillz.

The truth of the matter is that i'm always the one coming from out of town.  It's not very time efficient for the person who arrives at Granny's house at 12 noon on Thanksgiving Day after being in a car for 48 hours to also have the task of cooking the meal.  But finally, at long last, and THANK YOU JESUS, we're having Thanksgiving at my house.  Because i finally have a house!  Only a small portion of the clan is coming, so it's the perfect size group for my maiden voyage.  However, we will definitely miss the ones who will be celebrating elsewhere.

In typical cosmic fashion, i have built this thing up in my mind so much that it has become a major event.  Even President Obama himself does not get wined-and-dined as well as i plan to wine-and-dine my guests.  My dad tried to supply me with some menu suggestions, and i told him, "Ooooohhh no, buddy.  Back off the menu.  This is MY game."

I love menu planning.  I basically haven't slept since i found out that they're coming.  I lie in bed at 3am thinking about brining, basting, roasting, trimming.  Should we have sweet potato casserole with pecans, or marshmallows?  Should we have roasted potatoes, or mashed potatoes?  I can't wait!

But it always seems to come down to the grim reality that i am not a multi-tasker.  Cannot do it.  I'm a procrastinator as well.  And a perfectionist.  So it's nigh unto impossible for a procrastinating, non-multi-tasking perfectionist to ever bring her dreams into existence.

I'm determined to do it, though.  I'm going to print out an 8x10 headshot of Emily Chastain and hang it up in my kitchen for inspiration.  And next to that, i'll put an 8x10 of Martha Stewart.  Those 2 women are symbols of efficiency, productivity, and greatness.  Together, we gon' rock this house!

I've come up with a preliminary list of activities i'd like to do while they are here.  It includes:

-Lord of the Rings marathon
-Settlers of Catan championship
-Wii sports tournament
-Yahtzee competition
-Touch football in the park across the street
-Looking at the cute shops downtown
-Going to see the Muppet movie
-Various craft projects with my Mother
-Shopping at several children's consignments
-Long talks with my dad about literature

We can do all that in 3 days, right?  And also cook\eat a massive Thanksgiving feast?

Oh yeah, this Thanksgiving is going to be great!