On your mark, get set, GO...

Let the madness begin!!! It's 3 days until Thanksgiving so that means it is 35 days until Christmas.
I honestly really hate Thanksgiving and I think I have figured out that Thanksgiving is a let down! When I was a kid it was this HUGE production. We would go to my Grandma's house and stay the weekend. She lived about 2 hours away from us. I remember she would get up in the middle of the night to put the turkey in the oven and then every 30 minutes after that to baste it. She would save bread all year long and freeze it for her stuffing. She did not make that cornbread concoction you Southerner's call stuffing. Oh and the mashed potato's! She would mash them and put them in a serving bowl with a pat of butter melting down the sides, then she would sprinkle paprika on top "just to give them color"! As soon as you opened your eyes in the morning you already smelled the turkey and the pies that were cooking as well. We always had pumpkin pie as well as chocolate pie, because it was my dad's favorite. One year I was probably 10 years old and my Aunt, my Dad, and me put a rubber snake inside the turkey as we were getting it out of the oven to bring to her. My Grandma screamed like crazy when she was pulling out the stuffing by handfuls and picked up that snake! We always ate on China at Thanksgiving and Christmas at her house. I remember being almost scared to eat because I didn't want to scratch the tiny pink roses that graced each plate. After dinner we usually watched Football and all of my Great Aunts and Uncles would come by for coffee. They would all sit at the table and drink endless pots of coffee and cackle about the past. Then there was the left over turkey sandwiches all weekend! But now, you rush and eat and it seems to be a burden to cook all of that food. You do not appreciate the turkey sandwiches because now you can buy turkey lunch meat all year!
Since when did Thanksgiving flow right into Christmas? I remember it taking forever for Christmas to get here! So why has Thanksgiving become just the day before the biggest shopping day of the year? I do not remember my parents rushing out at 4am those Friday's to get the biggest and brightest toys! In fact, I don't remember even have filled out my Christmas list that early! Maybe because I was lucky if I got one thing, not the countless things my kids ask for! I was in 3rd grade and I got a pair of white roller skates with green wheels to boot! I thought I was big stuff that year! We had a huge living room and I would skate thru the living room and into the kitchen and thru the dinning room all Christmas break! I had a red and white poncho that my Grandma had crocheted me and I put that over my waist like it was a skirt and skated and skated and skated with not a care in the world.
So friends, get ready Christmas is near.
Until tomorrow...
T-