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...and then I'll exclaim as I stuff my mouth full of pie, "Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good nigh'!"

Tomorrow will be our first Thanksgiving alone. Not like alone alone, but family alone. As in, just Husband and the kids. And me.

I'm actually really excited about it.

Thanksgivings past have seemed a bit more daunting because they always involved so much social interaction. Generally with extended family -whom I like, by the way, just not all together and at the same time.

(I know it must seem strange, what with my charismatic blog posts, but I don't do social interaction so well. It's kind of embarrassing to admit, but I'm quite the social moron.)

So this year, I'm excited to run the whole Thanksgiving show by myself. (Not to mention we'll actually have all the left-overs in our fridge this year, which has never happened, and frankly I cannot wait for weeks of turkey sandwiches.)

I spent most of today making rolls, pies and layered jello (no, jello is not a traditional Thanksgiving food for us, yes I made it anyway.) The boys helped shape rolls, which was interesting. Two Bits helped make pie - and had to let me know just how big of a mess I made when I spilled pumpkin goo ALL OVER the kitchen.

Husband claimed responsibility for the turkey. Really. He was pretty enthusiastic about it. Apparently he has big plans for our bird.

I have crafts planned for the kids in the morning. Some good old melted-crayon-shaving-placemats will be made. Then I have some of our superb Green Jello with Carrots coloring pages and place cards printed out for the kids to color and use. And possibly we'll also be making hand print turkeys....we'll see how it goes after the "Count Your Blessings" booklets are done.

And then I cook food, we eat food, we eat more food, watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and have pie.

I'm really excited. It's gonna be great!


ALSO (not related to content of post): You know that book I turned in to that publisher? Rejected, but for not horrible reasons, so once I find a literary agent it's heading to the big publishers.

And guess what?


I JUST GOT MY FIRST BOOK ILLUSTRATION JOB.


My samples were chosen by the publisher yesterday. I'm euphoric.

When I was a little kid I said I wanted to grow up to be an author/illustrator. Could it be that I'm finally on my way? (Also, does this mean that I have to grow up? Because I'm not really down with that, but I'm totally pumped to live out a childhood dream.)

Comments

glitterbygrammie saidā€¦
I think to be a good illustrator you have to be a bit of a child. I think they see things through different eyes than us GROWN UPS.
Have a nice family dinner is great to do. Your still thankful and still with family. I see nothing wrong with that. You get all the leftovers. awesome
I hope you have a great day.
Rhonda saidā€¦
congrats to yoU! something to look forward to and be excited about!

And I LOVE our alone thanksgivings. Not quite the same as our first 15 yrs of marraige where we spent it with my family (super fun and always nice) but things changed and we do our own now. EXCEPT this year we are going to spend it with an aunt and cousins. Should be fun too but I couldnt miss out on our OWN so we did our OWN version on Sunday. Leftovers city baby!
annie valentine saidā€¦
Ack! Yay yay yay you! And good job in the illustration job as well. Just kidding, that's the really big news and I am so happy for you.

May I recommend cream cheese, mayo, cranberry sauce and turkey on white?
Wonder Woman saidā€¦
thousands of things to be thankful for!!!

You holiday sounds like it's going to be spectacular. It's all about perspective, and I just needed a little dose of it. I made a few thanksgiving dishes this evening with the kids help and it was kinda fun. Maybe next year I'll put some effort into it.
Wonder Woman saidā€¦
and did I say conGRATuSTINKINlations?!?!!!!!! That's awesome!
Emmy saidā€¦
Congrats on the illustration job!!! That is awesome.
It will be just my family and my in-laws for Thanksgiving and that is sounding just perfect to me too :)

Happy Thanksgiving and again congrats!!
cc saidā€¦
Yea for you! And I just know the big publishers will love your book.

We're seriously considering finding a way out of our Thanksgiving plans...staying home and doing it ourselves is sounding strangely appealing - especially after I ruined my pie dough last night when I sliced my finger open with my food processor. I don't have high hopes for my turkey...

Happy Thanksgiving!
Heather saidā€¦
Congratulations, Melissa. See! Life does so have adventure yet to be had.

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