11 Thanksgiving traditions at our house

• We'll watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which I've done since I was a kid.
• Tom the Turkey will be our table centerpiece. Best $6.99 Marshall's purchase ever!
• We order most of the meal from Whole Foods except...
• ...for the sweet potato pie I make especially for Max, who's loved sweet potatoes since he was a baby, so much so that his skin had an orange tint.
• Everyone will comment on how well Max is doing and how far he's come. Never get tired of hearing that.
• Dave will be very proud of himself for his turkey-carving abilities. (He is available to carve your turkey, for a small fee.)
• Max will mostly want to eat sweet potato pie; he's not into turkey. Sabrina will eat twice her body weight in turkey.
• I will mostly want to eat stuffing. You could just serve me a meal full of stuffing and I'd be happy. Someday, I'd like to open up a restaurant named Stuffing. And guess what it will serve?
• My mom (who gets full after approximately five bites) will watch me take another helping of stuffing and think to herself "Oh, dear, she has got to stop eating that stuffing because she has to lose some weight" only she will not actually say a word.
• For once, everyone in the extended family will be on their best behavior.
• After dinner's done, everyone will go hang out in the living room in a food stupor as I clean up in the kitchen, only I will not mind because by then I will seriously want to be alone.
• I will vow to never eat again, but then somehow, I will be hungry for breakfast in the morning.

Happy, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

And from my Babble blog...

8 Ways To Have The Ultimate Thanksgiving Tip #7: "Find a Pied Piper. This is the house guest you will ask/beg to entertain the kids so you can get finish prepping food and not have anyone dipping their fingers or other body parts into the gravy. Every year, my cousin plays games with the kids before dinner and generally makes them laugh. So what if it's all about fart jokes?"

Stress-Free Plane Trips: 12 Tips For Parents Sanity Tip #8: "Decorate your seat. Before we head out on vacation, I print photos of where we're going to, pack some of that poster putty stuff and tack the pictures on the closed trays. For our trip to Disney World, I printed out Mickey and the gang. Bring a bunch and redecorate throughout the flight; feel free to feng shui your row of seats, while you're at it."