how to do thanksgiving

First, invite your relatives. Assemble the guest list: Matt's parents, John and Martha, Cousin Amanda, Brother Adam.

Then, plan the menu. Include many traditional Anderson recipes, confer with husband and mother-in-law to determine what they normally eat, and add a new recipe of your own.

Since you've never made half the recipes before, it might be nice to do a practice thanksgiving a few weekends prior. Invite Tim and Lori and and Naz and Indira, who won't be able to celebrate on Thanksgiving Day because the boys are on call in the hospital. Recruit Lori to bring half the dishes. Try your hand at a cranberry-apple pie. After finding flames raging in the oven, make note that the pie is apt to overflow and that burned cranberry sauce is highly flammable.

For Real Thanksgiving, assemble your recipes and ingredients. Remember to thaw the turkey plenty of days ahead of time. Ever seasonally mindful, bake and freeze Fresh Cranberry Muffins and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. Pumpkin Whoopie Pies and Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Sticks make sweet treats. Assemble Sweet Potato Souffle, Cheese Ball, Pumpkin Dip, and Cranberry Relish the day ahead. Chop onions and celery, bake cornbread and let it and the french bread get nice and dry for the stuffing. On Thanksgiving Day, allow the experienced hands of Martha to prepare the Turkey, Peacan Pie, and Mashed Potatoes.
Recruit:

Amanda to bring Rolls from an NYC bakery,
quaintly wrapped in paper and string.

and

Adam to bring two stunningly adorned
Pumpkin Pies.

Don't spend all day in the kitchen. It's important to have the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade playing in the background. Take time to walk on the beach to show the family the neighborhood.

After spending appropriate time frolicking outside, return to the kitchen. Have husband carve the turkey, save the wishbone, make the Green Beans, Martha makes the gravy, much to her son's delight.

Set the table.

Assemble the family. Give Thanks for our numerous blessings. This has been a momentous, fantastic year for me, heaping joys upon joy. Thanksgiving isn't the only day Matt and I give thanks, but it's nice to have a holiday.

Eat. Rejoice. Talk. Laugh. Go to the movies.

And that's how we did our first thanksgiving.