It’s been so busy here with the launch of this site that I’ve hardly even thought about Thanksgiving – the biggest national dinner party day of the year! My day of worship at the table of the dinner party gods! An entire government-approved holiday just to have a dinner party! Inexcusable, really.

But this year is a little different, which is why I haven’t been thinking much about my Thanksgiving menu or decor.  My grandpa is fairly ill with cancer and, since he’s the best grandpa a girl ever had, I’m going out to Denver to visit with him over the holiday.  A bunch of other family members are coming too, so we’ll do something Thanksgiving-related, but we aren’t sure yet how up to eating or anything celebratory Gramps will be. My idea is to do a “Thanksgiving Leftovers” Thanksgiving: skip the big dinner itself and go straight to the turkey/mashed potato/cranberry sauce/gravy/stuffing sandwiches!  Come on, you have to admit that’s everyone’s favorite part anyway. We can all sit around and eat whatever we want, and I think Gramps will be more comfortable eating casually than at a big formal dinner.

Since we’re all getting in late Wednesday night and there won’t be much time for cooking, we’ll probably just pickup ready-made fixings at Whole Foods and jazz them up a little. Tomorrow I will post a fantastic mashed potato dish that I will make if I have time on Thursday morning. This year, though, it’s not about the food at all. It’s about just being there together; which, after all, is the real aim of Thanksgiving.

I promise lots of decor and menu ideas next year.