Ah the innocence of Season 1

After staring at this photo last night ...



I felt the urge for the sweet, innocent Sam of Season 1.  So I watched Faith before I went to bed last night.

Wow how young were both of them?  And their "problems" were so simple compared with S3 & S4.  I miss that in a way.

Not that I don't love S4, I do. 

Feeling much better btw.

Now I gotta clean the house and go grocery shopping for Thanksgiving.  UGH.

Thanksgiving traditions..

I'm in a bit of a sappy mood.  Anyone want to share their family Thanksgiving traditions?

I'm actually NOT doing a turkey this year.  After last year I finally decided that a) no one in my family, including myself is overly fond of turkey and b) the angst of trying to get a turkey cooked just right, not under- or over-cooked is a pain I don't really need, and c) the MESS of clean-up, carving and storing a turkey is something I can certainly live without.

Of course I'm going to kinda miss the ritual of preparing the bird in the morning while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

That is one of our traditions, watching the parade while preparing the bird.

This year we'll have a honey-baked ham.  Easy, no worrying about when it will be done.  We'll have most of the other traditional side dishes though--including stuffing (prepared in a casserole of course) since my daughter couldn't live without that.

Of course one of the traditional "problems" of the day is how do you cook all those side dishes with only one oven which is being used to cook the main dish?

I think I'll make scalloped potatoes instead of mashed.  And I have to have canned sweet potatoes (not with marshmellows though---I didn't grow up with that.)  I'm not sure who will be showing up when, so I don't know if I need to make one scalloped potato dish or two.

I'll likely bake some bread tonight or maybe tomorrow morning--hey I can substitute making bread for preparing the bird perhaps.

Plus I may make an egg/bacon casserole tonight for tomorrow's breakfast.

Mom is bringing pies.

fickleone  is bringing pumpkin bread, rolls, apple cider,  sparkling cider, soda and appetizer(s).

Henrietta and Tricia are bringing chips and more soda and probably other stuff.  I wouldn't be too surprised if she shows up with some kind of turkey despite being told it wasn't needed.

Em wants me to make my walnut salad--we'll see.

Still have to clean the darn house. 

And need to get some wine.

We'll also exchange names for Christmas tomorrow.  Although we may combine all the adult gifts and instead give something to a charity as a family--I like that idea--I don't really need more stuff.

I feel like we need more traditions in this family--anyone got some good ones to share?

ETA: Oh, and one of the Thanksgiving traditions I've been trying to get rid of the past few years is me freaking out over cleaning and cooking and people coming over.  Life's too short.  I think I've been getting better at this -- this year my goal is to be totally ZEN.  *crosses fingers and chants*