Holiday Plans

We did most our shopping today for the Big Meal later this week. I still have to get the turkey tomorrow, and find pearl onions and ginger preserves, and get the liquor. Shoot, I guess there's more left than I thought. Luckily, I get a block of time tomorrow without the boy to navigate the horror that is the grocery store the week of Thanksgiving.
We will be doing the same meal that C and I have been doing every year for the past (gulp) fourteen years. We've cooked for hoards of friends and family; we've cooked for a few close friends; we've cooked at our own house and at others' houses. It's always funny to me the hype surrounding this mythical meal. At a playgroup last week, everyone was complaining how long it took to cook a turkey. Most of them weren't hosting their own Thanksgivings, and for that they gave thanks, because they had an outdated idea that they'd have to wake up at 5 am to deal with the bird. I said that my turkey is always done in under 3 hours, which, I'm pretty sure, made them think I am a witch, or that I like to eat raw bird. I will start my food prep on Tuesday evening, and will have knocked out all but the onions, brussel sprouts, and bird before Thursday. It will still seem hectic, but it will also seem comfortable and familiar, like the holidays should. It will be harder too this year, with the Tasmanian Devil that is Wiggle underfoot in the kitchen, but hey, this is why I've been training all these years, right?
I know that holidays are stressful in many ways, but I intend to and do enjoy my holidays. I make sure to sip a glass of Dubonnet with a twist, just as my mother sometimes did while cooking. I make enough food to ensure leftovers, which also means a few days of minimal cooking for the days following the holiday. I spend time with my family playing games or snuggled up watching movies. I do not participate in the madness that is Black Friday. I start daydreaming about Christmas and singing carols loudly and with much enthusiasm. I am a person who loves the holidays both in theory and in practice, and I hope I am able to teach Wiggle to practice loving the holidays too.