Party at Julia's

Queen Isabella found here. I think I'd look great in pink, don't you? 

I am looking forward to feeding a mob of people for Thanksgiving dinner. That is, if 25 people constitute a mob.

When I relate this to some of my friends and have a goofy grin on my face while I say it, I'm accused of being daft. But it's true - I am daft - and I absolutely love packing my house to the rafters for the holidays. Any holiday. Sure, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years.......but any one will do. If I could, I'd have a Groundhog Day hoo-rah. We could exchange little groundhog gifts under the festively decorated groundhog tree. Early in the morning. After sticking our heads outside the front door to see if the sun was shining.

Ooo - or a Columbus Day celebration. We could all wear costumes. (I call dibs on Queen Isabella, by the way.) Hm. We'd have to seat the guests at one of three tables: the Pinta, the Nina, and the Santa Maria. I'd serve grog, give everyone toy spyglasses, and we could all take turns shouting, "Land HO!"

Now THAT would be a great party.

So......back to Thanksgiving. The only reason that I'm able to successfully host a four day weekend's worth of festivities is that John and my kids actually do all the work. I even make our guests bring food, do dishes, and re-arrange furniture. And actually, everyone seems to enjoy pitching in and helping as the turkey roasts and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade rolls by on the television. We all stop to watch the Radio City Hall Rockettes.

Rockettes found here. 

My daughters live in Seattle, and have several friends that have relocated there from other parts of the country. The girls call them their "holiday orphans" and invite them to join our family for holidays. I remember one Thanksgiving in particular when my daughter brought home several of her friends who were in culinary school. These guys were extremely handy folks to have around when it came time to carve the turkey. And thicken the gravy. And season the sweet potatoes. And serve up the mashed potatoes. And to cheerfully do just about anything else that was food related. I wonder if any of them are coming back this year........hm.......

This year, I have calculated that we will have thirteen people sleeping under our roof, with another twelve joining us for dinner. So far. But who cares? By the time the guest list surpasses twenty, what's another two or three or five guests? I just throw some extra potatoes on to boil and thin out the gravy a little. Somehow, regardless of how many people are seated around the table, we always have plenty of food.

I've given our overnight visitors warning that their sleeping accommodations may be a sleeping bag on an air mattress, but no one seems to mind. They all seem to come back every year.

Thank goodness.