Family Ties...or Nooses?

image courtesy of The New York Times

Thanksgiving...it can get intense.  If an entire family is going to get together once a year, it is usually Thanksgiving.  Christmastime is often too hectic for travel, especially when a family has young children.  So, yup, Thanksgiving it usually is.  Everyone comes, kicking and screaming, to break bread and carve the turkey.  Take the picture above.  A modern, pop culture take on Turkey Day.  The cook is in tears, probably offended because her mother told her she can't cook, and the 50+ year old siblings are in the back, killing each other like it's 1965.  As much as things change, they also stay the same.

I challenge everyone this year to not only endure the holiday season, but to even try to sit back and enjoy it.  If you relax, and drink A LOT of wine, you might even realize that as NUTS as your family is, so is everyone else's.  I have already heard many of  my friends (who shall remain nameless) express their fears and concerns about their impending Thanksgivings....and I really can't help but laugh because it is SO NORMAL to be completely scared of your family.  You just never know what's going to happen.  For me, that's even a little exciting--I like the game, the fear of the unknown. The majority of my own family is making the trip in, and my only regret thus far is that Blake will be practicing and working out in Auburn and won't be able to sit there and enjoy the debauchery with me and my cousins.  It's always wild, and there's alot of love in the room.  Thanksgiving lunch is at Ma & Granddaddy's house this year...if you are in the neighborhood, stop on in for a visit and rest a spell, you might get stabbed with a fork or you might get a big ole hug ;)

Any really good Thanksgiving dinner stories out there?  I don't really have one good specific one, well, except Aunt Candy did bring a pound dog home for Granddady once (didn't go over well with Ma). At my house the good stories involve sphagetti getting dropped in laps and on lil Iris, and that has absolutely nothing to do with Thanksgiving.