I love Thanksgiving. We always wake up and watch the parade at my Mom’s while everyone bustles around getting showers and starting meal preparation. We go to Shaun’s grandma’s first and chow. She makes everything herself and is always just about too excited to eat. Her house is small, cramped and hot. She serves the cranberry sauce out of the can. It’s hilarious and so much fun.
After that, we head back to my Mom’s for dinner number two. My step-dad has a big, crazy family. We eat together then tear into the Black Friday ads and make our Christmas lists. There are about 3 dozen hopped up, wild kids running around and eventually one of the adults bundles everyone up and takes them outside to burn off some energy. We swap names and find out who we are buying gifts for for Christmas. Usually setting this up leads to a little bit of bickering, but in the end it always works out.
After everyone goes home, we snuggle up and take naps or watch tv together. It is always hectic and getting everything to work out together is always a pain in the butt before hand, but I seriously love it almost more than Christmas just because it is so much more simple. I’m so excited this year to bring Isaac into our little craziness.
For your reading pleasure, I have put together a list. If, for some reason, my family didn’t want me for Thanksgiving one year and I could pick any 4 authors to share my Thanksgiving meal with, here is who would be at my Thanksgiving dinner:
Anne Lamott: I love her. I think this is probably the only author whose full works I’ve read. I saved Operating Instructions until I was pregnant, and it was every bit worth saving. So good. I always just think that Anne and I would be friends. She is just gritty and earthy and real. I have read so many “Christian Inspiration” books that leave me feeling like either the author isn’t real or there’s something wrong with them. Not Anne Lamott. She is just so human in the same way I am. She screws up and laughs at herself and has great friends and a family that she’s wild about. My kind of girl, for sure. Her son can come too if he’s not too cool for that kind of thing now.
Patrick Rothfuss: Of course I love The Name of the Wind, and pimp it on my blog regularly, but that’s not why I’d invite Patrick. I’d invite him because I follow his blog and he’s hilarious. He’s also good to his fans, loyal to several charities, and has a beard that (almost!) rivals Shaun’s. I’m a sucker for a good beard.
Stephen King: Of course. I love him. I want to talk to him. I think that Anne and Patrick would also love him. And if things get boring, he can tell us a ghost story.
Ann M. Martin: No one has propelled my love of reading like ol’ Ann. I read The Baby Sitter’s Club like it was my job for the majority of my child hood. I always thought that Ann M. Martin seemed like this perfectly nice, wonderful teacher and I always wanted to be her friend. No better place to start than Thanksgiving, right? I hope it won’t be confusing that we’re going to have two Ann(e)s. Eek.
So there ya go. Wonder what they’re all doing next year? I’m a pretty good cook… and I’ll make you pumpkin cheesecake!