A Very Thankful Un-Thanksgiving

Thanksgivings come in all shapes and sizes. Growing up they leaned towards the larger size with family, friends and friends of friends who needed a place to eat being invited to the table (or tables). I carried this tradition into my married life and when we were still stateside, Glenn and I would make the trek from Virginia to New York or Maine to join my family for the big meal. After a particularly trying trip by air we took to driving and the time in the car was always worth it. Sidney even made his appearance in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning. That was the year we had two Thanksgiving dinners and so much to be thankful for.

Living overseas, Thanksgiving is a very different experience indeed. First, it is business as usual for everyone but the Americans. In Albania we always recreated our tradition by inviting friends to join us for dinner. Last year we enjoyed more than one celebration, one year dinner was quite small and then there was the year that the dinner was so large it involved three tables and ended with my lying on the kitchen floor muttering the phrase "never again". Needless to say, each year has been different but the meaning behind the day is the same. It is a time to pause and give thanks for all that we have.

And because we are still overseas, today's Thanksgiving is taking on yet another look. It is business as usual in Belgium with Sidney having school (although an early dismissal for which I can only assume is a gesture to the many Americans who attend the Belgian school) and Glenn having to work. But it isn't just any work for Glenn as this week he is away attending a NATO sponsored training. I honestly love the fact that we are in an international environment where life doesn't come to a standstill simply because there are a lot of Americans in their midst. Hence, a full day of training on American Thanksgiving. But at the same time his absence, and that of my other family, is making me feel a bit out of sorts. Do I cook a big dinner or not? For me the traditional dinner is just as much a part of the day as sharing it with family and friends. Depending upon his mood Sidney may or may not partake in turkey and all of the fixings. But Thanksgiving without the turkey? I just can't do it so I'm roasting up a tiny bird, mashing up some potatoes and making a few other of my favorite items. If Sidney eats them, great. If not, that leaves all the more leftovers for me (and the only thing better than dinner is leftovers the next day).

It will be a quiet day for sure and could easily pass as just another Thursday for us. But all is not lost as we will be holding our full Thanksgiving dinner in a few weeks. Then I will cook all of my favorite dishes and we'll invite our international friends to join us in the most traditional of American holidays. I can't wait. And simply being able to do so is a reminder of what Thanksgiving is all about. It is about being thankful and I am very, very thankful for having our health, being able to experience everything Europe has to offer, and most of all, being able to share it all with those people we care about. And the turkey? I'll get my turkey. There isn't any doubt about that.

Talking Turkey Again

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of all time. Some years our celebrations are big, other times they are small, some are more memorable than others (hello baby!) but all are wonderful. So in honor of today here's a repeat post of a memorable "Thanksgiving" in Albania. Happy holidays!

I love Thanksgiving.  From the food and festivities to the friends and family who sit around our dinner table, this day is my single favorite one of the entire year.  Growing up in my family it was the "it" holiday, far surpassing Christmas as a day to enjoy.  As if the day wasn't already special enough, Sidney was born on Thanksgiving Day 2009 adding a whole new meaning to the term "being thankful".  For our first Thanksgiving in Albania we went all out with food and friends. It hindsight it was a bit much so last year we "downsized" to a more reasonable yet still festive gathering.  And because Thanksgiving and its accompanying turkey, fixings, and pies are the quintessential American meal, we've often replicated the typical Thanksgiving feast for representational dinners over the past two years.  This means I've roasted a lot of turkeys during my time in Albania. So because of turkey fatigue, this year I vowed to go very simple and cook a single turkey for a small gathering of our closest friends for Thanksgiving.  That was my plan and I was sticking to it............until things changed.

Last winter I had the opportunity to be profiled in (Albanian) Living magazine, the equivalent of Martha Stewart Living, where I shared our American Christmas traditions.  When the magazine approached me this year to talk about Thanksgiving, I immediately jumped since the offer was just too good to refuse.  This is my favorite holiday after all!  The wheels in my head began to work overtime right away.  But that is when things got interesting since the first matter of business was to procure the centerpiece of any Thanksgiving feast, the turkey.  Having vowed to not over-do it with turkey this year, our usual stash of Butterballs imported from Kosovo via Germany and the United States was depleted.  Turkeys are popular in Albania at New Year but difficult to find during the remaining months of the year.  However, a couple of phone calls later and I found a friend who knew someone who knew the meat buyer at a local grocery chain who would in turn be able to special order a fresh turkey for me and import it from Italy.  (It may sound confusing but the whole process was just so Albanian).  The only question I was asked was "how big" to which I responded "as big as you can get".  The old adage of being careful for what one wishes for certainly applies here since the following week a 30 pound turkey arrived on my doorsteps. Yes, 30 pounds.  Let's just say that birdie was so big that I questioned whether or not it would even fit inside my American-sized oven.  Fortunately it did.  Just barely, but it did.  I stuck it in the freezer and continued with my planning.

After series of phone calls and reschedulings, list making activities and shopping trips we were good to go.  I hauled out all of my Thanksgiving decorations and dishes.  To make it authentic, we invited close friends to join us for a mock holiday dinner that would capture the essence and spirit of the American Thanksgiving tradition.  I picked a menu.  And then revised it a time or two.  Because the beast of a bird was now frozen, we set about defrosting it in the refrigerator days before the big meal.  Much to my surprise I was able to find most of the ingredients I needed in a single store.  Three days before the dinner I started cooking and now I was a bit anxious about how my food would look.  I rarely worry about taste but when the meal is being photographed appearance is what it is all about.  Pie crust, always the bane of my cooking existence, and I fought a battle and this time I won.  The plan was to have the photographer arrive a few hours before dinner to start take pictures of the preparations and to stage the food.  When our guests arrived we would sit at the table and have mock toasts and pretend to eat.  After the photographer departed we would finally be allowed to dig into our food.  All of the logistics worried me and I was particularly concerned about the food growing cold while the pictures were taken.  Glenn assured me that everything would work out yet still I worried.

The day of the dinner came and in typical fashion, things just fell into place.  Thanks to Glenn, the monster bird was stuffed and in the oven at the correct time.  Because it was so big it took longer to roast than I had anticipated but that was actually all right.  Since I didn't need to have all of the food ready to serve at the same time I didn't have the usual pressure of getting my timing just so.  I was actually relaxed in the kitchen (which in itself made me a bit nervous!).  We staged the food and took pictures in a leisurely fashion. I explained the American Thanksgiving tradition and used Google to pull up pictures of traditional Thanksgiving symbols looked like.  By the time our guests arrived we were ready to move onto the toasts.  We briefed them on the plan then we sat down and gave toasts.  Sidney, always a wild card in any planned activity, was a ham, cooperated and smiled nicely for the camera.  Glenn donned my apron and carved the monster bird.  All went well.  When the crew from the magazine packed up and left I reheated a few dishes, Glenn poured more wine and we ate.  Despite the messy kitchen, at the end of the night I felt that the evening was a success.

So I have one Thanksgiving down and (somehow) another one is still to come. I'll be blogging about my actual recipes in my food blog during the month of November so stay tuned.  By the time the magazine article is published we'll still be finishing up the leftovers of this turkey and I'll be planning another Thanksgiving dinner.  I'll be hunting for another (smaller) turkey and searching out my other key ingredients.  And I said I was only hosting one dinner this year?  I foolishly believed it but Glenn knew better!  Maybe next year it will be true.

Talking Turkey Take Two (Three & Four)

Gobble!  Gobble!  Yes, today is Thanksgiving and more than any other, this holiday is all about food.  And not just any food but the turkey (or in my case, its the side dishes that take center stage).  But in reality, without the turkey, it just wouldn't feel like Thanksgiving.  Living overseas, procuring the requisite turkey can sometimes prove to be a challenge.  You just need to log onto any ex-pat blog to see what measures Americans will go through in order to put a turkey on their Thanksgiving table.  Where turkey isn't available any combination of fowl may be substituted with varying results.  But if it isn't turkey........  For many Americans however, when you say the word turkey, we immediately think about a Butterball turkey.  (And as we discovered, Butterball turkeys are as coveted here in Albania as well; mention turkey to an Albanian and they say it is good, tell them it is a Butterball and their level of excitement skyrockets).  Currently we are fortunate that we not only have access to fresh turkeys on a seasonal basis but we also have the ability to import Butterball turkeys from American military bases located here in Europe.  So this year, there is plenty of turkey to go around.

Because we love Thanksgiving and (now) have a ready stash of Butterball turkeys in our freezer I am excited to once again be hosting a dinner today for some of our closest Albanian friends.  I'm even going out on a limb for the first time and following the advice of a good friend, am roasting my turkey from the frozen state.  Yes, you read that right, I plopped the entire frozen bird in the oven this morning and as I type, it is roasting away and smelling very much like a turkey.  (The complete story will surely be a future blog post!).  We haven't even sat down to eat the bird yet and Glenn is already talking about the turkey sandwich he will make with the leftovers.

But this is not our first Thanksgiving of the year.  Last month we hosted a mock Thanksgiving dinner that was profiled in an Albanian lifestyle magazine.  We ate the 30 pound turkey for more meals than I want to remember and only finished up the last of the frozen leftovers last week ---just in time for us to stock up on more turkey leftovers.  Last night, Americans from our Embassy were the guests of the President of Albania at a very large, American style Thanksgiving dinner.  Attending a dinner the night before our own big dinner had been the last place that I wanted to be, but off we went.  (And unlike our holiday travels back in the U.S., this dinner only required a three minute drive to get there).  Served in the Palace of Brigades, which is one of Albania's more impressive buildings, the multi-course meal blended both American and Albanian customs and foods with turkey being the centerpiece of the meal.  And just in case we haven't had our fill of turkey and all of the accompanying sides, tomorrow we will be eating our fourth Thanksgiving feast when we join friends from the Embassy who are hosting their own holiday dinner.  I'm guessing that by the time Monday rolls around I will be very tired of turkey.  So much so that I'm already planning a Christmas dinner that includes beef rather than, you guessed it......turkey.


Gobble, gobble.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday: Thanksgiving w/ Albanian Living Magazine

I blogged about the experience here; now you can see what it looked like.

Bring On The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

With October behind us, we can now charge towards Thanksgiving and Christmas at full speed.  Sure some retailers have been flaunting turkeys and Santa alongside Halloween candy but now that the later is relegated to the sale bins, we can focus our energies on what I consider to be the real end of year holidays.  It now feels acceptable to open the holiday editions of my favorite culinary magazines that have been filling my mailbox for months.  My oven is beginning to work overtime as pumpkins that were once destined for jack-o-lanterns can now be turned into pies, breads, and other delectable treats.  Air conditioning has been swapped for heat and skimpy warm weather clothing exchanged for cozy sweaters.  The days are shorter, Daylight Savings Time ended in Europe last week with the States falling back early tomorrow morning, but for me the early darkness just makes me more productive.  (After all it feels as though I have even less time to get more accomplished).  Colorful foliage is giving way to bare trees that have their own special winter beauty and cooler air hints at the real possibility of snowflakes.  People are more generous with their time, energies, and money as charities ask for donations to assist those in need.   How can anyone argue with this?  I'm pouring over my cookbooks and planning my Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner menus, digging out my sweaters, and plotting my holiday gift giving strategy.  In case you can't tell, I love this time of year and the next few weeks promise to be my favorite ones of the entire year.

And yes, because it is November it is NaBloPoMo, the month where aspiring bloggers are encouraged to write each and every day.  I've dabbled with NaBloPoMo over the course of the past year with some months being more successful than others but this November I'm recommitting to the effort.  So from now until the end of the month, look for a daily update either on this blog or my second blog dedicated to my culinary exploits.  That's thirty entries in thirty days but I can do it.  After all, this is my favorite time of year so I'm sure to have a lot to talk about.

Thanksgiving Cometh Early

Good grief, its Thanksgiving already?

I love Thanksgiving.  From the food and festivities to the friends and family who sit around our dinner table, this day is my single favorite one of the entire year.  Growing up in my family it was the "it" holiday, far surpassing Christmas as a day to enjoy.  As if the day wasn't already special enough, Sidney was born on Thanksgiving Day 2009 adding a whole new meaning to the term "being thankful".  For our first Thanksgiving in Albania we went all out with food and friends. It hindsight it was a bit much so last year we "downsized" to a more reasonable yet still festive gathering.  And because Thanksgiving and its accompanying turkey, fixings, and pies are the quintessential American meal, we've often replicated the typical Thanksgiving feast for representational dinners over the past two years.  This means I've roasted a lot of turkeys during my time in Albania. So because of turkey fatigue, this year I vowed to go very simple and cook a single turkey for a small gathering of our closest friends for Thanksgiving.  That was my plan and I was sticking to it............until things changed.

Last winter I had the opportunity to be profiled in (Albanian) Living magazine, the equivalent of Martha Stewart Living, where I shared our American Christmas traditions.  When the magazine approached me this year to talk about Thanksgiving, I immediately jumped since the offer was just too good to refuse.  This is my favorite holiday after all!  The wheels in my head began to work overtime right away.  But that is when things got interesting since the first matter of business was to procure the centerpiece of any Thanksgiving feast, the turkey.  Having vowed to not over-do it with turkey this year, our usual stash of Butterballs imported from Kosovo via Germany and the United States was depleted.  Turkeys are popular in Albania at New Year but difficult to find during the remaining months of the year.  However, a couple of phone calls later and I found a friend who knew someone who knew the meat buyer at a local grocery chain who would in turn be able to special order a fresh turkey for me and import it from Italy.  (It may sound confusing but the whole process was just so Albanian).  The only question I was asked was "how big" to which I responded "as big as you can get".  The old adage of being careful for what one wishes for certainly applies here since the following week a 30 pound turkey arrived on my doorsteps. Yes, 30 pounds.  Let's just say that birdie was so big that I questioned whether or not it would even fit inside my American-sized oven.  Fortunately it did.  Just barely, but it did.  I stuck it in the freezer and continued with my planning.

After series of phone calls and reschedulings, list making activities and shopping trips we were good to go.  I hauled out all of my Thanksgiving decorations and dishes.  To make it authentic, we invited close friends to join us for a mock holiday dinner that would capture the essence and spirit of the American Thanksgiving tradition.  I picked a menu.  And then revised it a time or two.  Because the beast of a bird was now frozen, we set about defrosting it in the refrigerator days before the big meal.  Much to my surprise I was able to find most of the ingredients I needed in a single store.  Three days before the dinner I started cooking and now I was a bit anxious about how my food would look.  I rarely worry about taste but when the meal is being photographed appearance is what it is all about.  Pie crust, always the bane of my cooking existence, and I fought a battle and this time I won.  The plan was to have the photographer arrive a few hours before dinner to start take pictures of the preparations and to stage the food.  When our guests arrived we would sit at the table and have mock toasts and pretend to eat.  After the photographer departed we would finally be allowed to dig into our food.  All of the logistics worried me and I was particularly concerned about the food growing cold while the pictures were taken.  Glenn assured me that everything would work out yet still I worried.

The day of the dinner came and in typical fashion, things just fell into place.  Thanks to Glenn, the monster bird was stuffed and in the oven at the correct time.  Because it was so big it took longer to roast than I had anticipated but that was actually all right.  Since I didn't need to have all of the food ready to serve at the same time I didn't have the usual pressure of getting my timing just so.  I was actually relaxed in the kitchen (which in itself made me a bit nervous!).  We staged the food and took pictures in a leisurely fashion. I explained the American Thanksgiving tradition and used Google to pull up pictures of traditional Thanksgiving symbols looked like.  By the time our guests arrived we were ready to move onto the toasts.  We briefed them on the plan then we sat down and gave toasts.  Sidney, always a wild card in any planned activity, was a ham, cooperated and smiled nicely for the camera.  Glenn donned my apron and carved the monster bird.  All went well.  When the crew from the magazine packed up and left I reheated a few dishes, Glenn poured more wine and we ate.  Despite the messy kitchen, at the end of the night I felt that the evening was a success.

So I have one Thanksgiving down and (somehow) another one is still to come. I'll be blogging about my actual recipes in my food blog during the month of November so stay tuned.  By the time the magazine article is published we'll still be finishing up the leftovers of this turkey and I'll be planning another Thanksgiving dinner.  I'll be hunting for another (smaller) turkey and searching out my other key ingredients.  And I said I was only hosting one dinner this year?  I foolishly believed it but Glenn knew better!  Maybe next year it will be true.

Monster Bird

Post Thanksgiving Reflections

Thanksgiving was yesterday and the single thing I am most thankful for this morning is that the day is over.  Don't get me wrong.  I love Thanksgiving and everything about it.   In fact it is my favorite holiday.  From the food and festivities to family, friends, and friends who are like family I love it all. But each and every year it is a lot of work.  (OK the one year it wasn't a lot of work I was actually in the hospital having just given birth to Sidney so I guess in 2009 it was just a different type of work). Growing up I remember my mom complaining that by the time Thanksgiving dinner was served she didn't have an appetite for the food.  Fast forward thirty plus years and I was now in the same boat. After being in the kitchen with the turkey and various side dishes all day, the last thing I wanted to do was sit down and eat the food.  It was all I smelled throughout the day and when I made a brief escape outside I realized that even I smelled like turkey.  Late last night, long after the kitchens were cleaned and the guests had departed, I woke up from a fitful sleep.  I was so tired that I just couldn't sleep.  And I kept smelling turkey.

This year we had a total of sixteen people at dinner.  With ten adults and six kids ranging from ages two through ten it was considerably smaller than last year's celebration which was comprised of twenty-four people (including four Marines who ate a lot) sitting around three tables.  This year our guests represented an international cross section and more importantly, were people who we really wanted to share our holiday dinner with.  I scaled down the menu from last year; only one big turkey and no ham, one type of dressing instead of two and three different desserts instead of five. In keeping with the American family-style theme we gave our housekeeper the day off and I did all the cooking myself. We even served the meal buffet style in an attempt to keep things simple.

Well, this is Albania so I should know that even the simplest of plans are never quite that simple. I had to scrap my favorite Thanksgiving dishes--fresh cranberry and orange relish, cranberry-walnut bread, and baked sweet potato casserole--since fresh cranberries and sweet potatoes are not available in Albania.  The beauty of making multiple dishes is that if one doesn't work out you have a back up.  When my one and only bread--- a date and pecan loaf-- crumbled upon slicing, I had nothing to serve in its place.  It is a shame that it didn't look better because it tasted so good.  As usual Glenn and I debated whether or not we could serve it. I'm of the opinion that presentation is just as important as taste so it shouldn't go on the table. Glenn said it was a family style meal so serving the crumbs would be acceptable.  In the end it didn't get served (and its absence actually wasn't noticed).

The dinner itself was a success. It was full of laughter and great conversation and thanks to the presence of the children equally loud and chaotic. (It didn't help matters that my own son was the shrieking ring leader of the bunch who thrived off of being egged on by the others).  For some around the table it was their first American style Thanksgiving. For others, it was a repeat event.  For Glenn and I, it was reminiscent of holidays at home.  It was simultaneously wonderful and sad.  We had our traditions and were surrounded by friends but somehow Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving without the parade, football games, and yes, as strange as it is, the National Dog Show.  In  keeping with Brown family tradition however, the men did clean up after dinner while the kids ran amok and the women supervised it all.

Every year I tell myself that the next year's dinner will be quieter and calmer.  We'll have fewer guests and less food.  By the time Thanksgiving rolls around again, however, I have forgotten the promise I had made to myself and go overboard all over again.  Even today, in my post turkey haze (where I've escaped to work just so I don't have to smell turkey), I'm already thinking ahead to next year.  Who will we invite to our final Albanian Thanksgiving?  What will I serve?  Should I try to order fresh sweet potatoes online and see if they arrive through the pouch?

Yes I'm exhausted today and glad Thanksgiving is over but in reality every bit of the chaos was worth it.  With the big dinner behind us I can look forward to a relaxing weekend of celebrating Sidney's third birthday and breaking out our Christmas decorations.  We plan on putting up our tree this weekend, organizing our guest list for our traditional holiday party and planning for looking forward to our Christmas in Germany.  While doing this we will be thinking about and missing our friends and family back home but we are also thankful for the friends and friends who are like family that we have here in Albania.  After all, that is what the holidays are really about.  And of course we will be eating lots of left over turkey. 

Happy Thanksgiving American (?) Style

Today is American Thanksgiving.  In recent years Thanksgiving has become the eve of Black Friday, an all out sale extravaganza that marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.  Traditionally, however,  it is a day to give thanks for all we are grateful for.  There are so many things I am thankful for- my family, friends, and as I age, my health- these are just a few of the things I must not take for granted.

Living overseas, Thanksgiving has snuck up on me this year.  When Glenn and I were first talking about this year's impending holiday, we realized that it would be the first one since we have known each other where we weren't doing the multi-family shuffle up and down Interstate 95 (another thing we are thankful for- not having to spend hours upon hours stuck in traffic).

For me, Thanksgiving has always been about family, friends, and friends that are like family.  Since we will be without our blood family this year, we decided share our American Thanksgiving with our adopted Albanian family- those people we see on a daily basis who make our lives possible.  What started out as an invitation the the Americans and Albanians in both of our offices has morphed into a dining extravaganza for 25.  We've included our housekeeper and our nanny and their respective families since none of what we do would be possible without their dedication and hard work.  Our two "adopted"  Marines from the Embassy's Marine Security Guard contingent were invited along with their co-workers and a smattering of girlfriends.

So how did we do this?  With the support of GSO and the previously mentioned housekeeper we crammed three dining room tables into our representational space.  The intermittent, and notoriously unreliable mail pouch came through with my "last minute" linens order.  Glenn discovered his crafty side as he went to work (under my supervision) putting together homemade turkey, wheat sheaf,  and pumpkin shaped place cards to keep the seating under control and eliminate any language barriers.

I began crafting my menu a month ago with an execution strategy that would put military planning to shame.  Turkeys and ham were purloined from the military commissary in Kosovo while sweet potatoes were brought back from Naples, Italy by traveling friends.  A lack of pecans and fresh cranberries in Albania resulted in the traditional pumpkin pie becoming a maple-walnut pie (Walnuts must be bought whole here then shelled)  and imported cranberry sauce from a can.  Pumpkin pie was made from my precious stash of canned pumpkin that I had packed into our consumable goods.  To accommodate all tastes and dietary restrictions, new dishes were added and some seasonings toned down.  Traditional recipes from both my family and Glenn's were included on the menu.   I added a few new dishes that will become part of our little family's tradition.  My mother spent one day of her visit making seven pie crusts which greatly expedited the production and baking of desserts.  The entire family learned the best techniques for roasting and shelling pounds (or kilograms) of fresh chestnuts.  A borrowed turkey roaster and my trusty crockpot allowed all the items to be cooked and served hot.

I began the actual cooking process a week ago, freezing and storing things as I went.  On more than one occasion I questioned my sanity at the wisdom of this whole event.  In the end, however, I believe it was worth it.  Our guests came and ate and shared our holiday with us. Yes, it was crazy and a bit chaotic but isn't that what the holidays are really about?  What better way to introduce such an American holiday to Albanians.

Let the Holidays Begin

Elmo and the Count ready to go

Today is Halloween.  For most people it means costumes and candy.  Here in Tirana we've had two Halloween events- one last Friday on the Embassy compound and the other tonight on the Ridge.  Both of my boys were decked out in matching costumes and collected an amount of candy that is totally out of proportion to the number of spots where they trick-or-treated. I didn't dress up and I don't plan to eat any candy.  No matter how much I try, and despite trowing a rocking Halloween party last week, I just can't get into the spirit of the holiday.  Maybe it was growing up in a rural area where trick-or-treating was not feasible.  Maybe it was the case of chicken pox on the Halloween when I was in fourth grade.   I don't know and I can't explain it.  I am just relieved that the whole Halloween thing is behind me for this year.

Halloween does have significance though.  Tomorrow ushers in my favorite time of year.  With Halloween behind me I can focus on the holidays that matters the most to me- Thanksgiving and then Christmas.   To me, these two holidays have a festive air that I wish I could experience all year long.  I have looked forward to these holidays since I was a child and like fine wine, they only improve with age.  Glenn and I met during the holiday season.  Two years ago we were blessed with the early arrival of Sidney on Thanksgiving Day.  I took his birth on my favorite holiday- plus the fact he was born after I had finished baking the Thanksgiving pies- as a sign that he too will love this holiday season.

I love the food, friends, and family that go along with this time of year.  Ok, more than this I might like the organization that goes along with these events.  The holidays are a great time for us Type A's to have our skills shine.  Starting tomorrow I can begin obsessing about my menus, guest lists, and seating charts for the multiple holiday dinners we will host.  Yes I know I will serve turkey but what will I do for sides?  Will I be able to find sweet potatoes and pecans or will I have to find Albanian substitutes?  Will my place cards be miniature turkeys, pumpkins, or both?  How will I get the timing right to get a dinner for 26 on the table at precisely at 1600?  These are the details I wait all year to ponder and for the next 24 days I can work and rework the countless possibilities for executing the perfect day.  After that I will have another 31 days to determine my strategy for Christmas.  Yes, I am a bit obsessed but isn't admitting you have a problem the first step?

Before I begin any of this, however, the Halloween costumes and my lone decoration- a glitter covered jack o'lantern- must be packed away.