In Anticipation of Thanksgiving

In less than nine days from today, the majority of my family will squeeze into our modest home for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I'm excited about this year because I will finally meet one of my husband's brothers and his family. Ironically, this brother lives nearby in Pennsylvania and we've never met. However, I have met my husband's other brother who lives in England. Go figure. Sometimes the relatives that live closest are the hardest to see.

Anyway, the idea that we have new members of the family coming makes me a bit nervous. I am in the process of getting organized for Thanksgiving. So far, I have decided that we absolutely need a new couch because the one we currently have is not upto par. This is of course thanks to our son, the greatest pug alive, Cato, decided our couch was his couch. When I mentioned it to my husband, I swear he tuned me out because Football was on! Imagine that... being ignored for football... *Note to self, when I have a daughter I should warn her of this pitfall, shrugging my shoulders.*

In my family, Thanksgiving dinner is more like a large potluck. We have dishes everyone is responsible for. For instance, my sister, Maribel she is charged with the untiring obligation of preparing the potatoe salad. She makes THE BEST potatoe salad. My Dad, yes my dad, makes the turkey. My husband, the second chef of my family (Dad's the first, no doubt) always makes seafood. He is easily bored so he varies the dishes yearly. This year we have imported lobsters from Jamaica (sweetest in the world). Dean (my husband) plans to unveil a new creation of his - all I know is that it involves a grill, sugar cane juice, scotch bonnet peppers, lemon and garlic! My brother, Nelson will make a ceviche (a traditional dish) with his own twist. My Aunt Joyce will make a pineappled ham which is to die for! I, well I am not allowed to cook... ever since the Strawberry Cake I attempted to make for my brother's birthday. The middle of the cake looked gelatinous. Oh dear... there was also that ill-fated attempt to broil bacon! Let's just say the fire department will be glad that I will not be near a stove. So instead, my husband let's me take care of the easy things like the salad. He says my salads are always pretty. That's good enough for me. This year I plan to divide the house into rooms and organize and clean one room at a time, starting the livingroom and work my way through the rest of the home.