Hello, all. Just catching up here after a very busy week. We always host a big chosen family Thanksgiving at our place, but since ND is always in tech for A Christmas Carol and stays down in Irvine from Friday night on, it's mostly me. For the past 8-9 years, my mom has come out from Connecticut and been my cheerful sous chef and co-prepper, but because her kitty got sick (kitty is doing fine now), she couldn't come this year. It hit me hard. Prepping for Thanksgiving alone is very hard and rather depressing, and I think some of it also is the aftermath of feeling the passage of time. This is my second Thanksgiving and Christmas and Dad's birthday without him, and that makes me worry about missing any time with my mom. However, friends made things easier — I had a couple friends come by and hang out with me while he was gone, and ND was able to come home Sunday night so he could help me with the grocery shopping on Monday before driving back down Monday night. Thursday morning, ND and I cleaned the heck out of the house while I finished food prep, and we were ready by the time people arrived. We usually have between 10-20 people; this year, we were supposed to have 12, but three people dropped out unexpectedly, so we ended up with nine total. Good thing everyone took home a lot of leftovers!!!

In terms of what I cook, I do the Alton Brown turkey (though I love that he just dropped this update video; I did, indeed, truss my turkey this year), gravy, a fancied up Trader Joe's cornbread stuffing (I add celery, onion, apple, and dried cranberries), a homemade cranberry sauce, mashed sweet potatoes with butter and a touch of brown sugar, an apple-pear pie, and my favorite pumpkin pie recipe, which includes dried, sugared cranberries and pie crust cookies with cinnamon sugar cut into leaves. Everything except the turkey and gravy is vegan (except the pumpkin pie, which is vegetarian). Our friends brought DELICIOUS roasted veggies, mashed potatoes, more appetizers than I can list, and extra dessert, including a homemade guava cheesecake. Everything was delicious. A few of us went for a hike up the fire road and then sat around and laughed and chatted. Even without my mom there, it was a warm, loving chosen family gathering, as always. I never regret the work it takes to make it happen.