So I cooked thanksgiving dinner today and I am one tired mother something-something. It was great though. As I was editing all the photos I uploaded onto flickr, I was overwhelmed with how wonderful everything turned out and how lucky I am to have a mom who will slave away in the kitchen with me from morning until night. Of course there were lots of other relatives helping helping helping but my mom really did make it happen. If she weren’t here I think I would have ordered a pizza and run for the hills.

I’m not the world’s worst cook but I just don’t love it. I love cleaning better. I would rather wash five countertops filled with dishes and sigh that big happy sigh of relief that they are done than cook a great big thanksgiving dinner and know that I made a table full of people happy. I don’t know why. I’m just weird that way. I just really really like that feeling that everything is clean and orderly.

So you can imagine that the thought of a kitchen over-flowing with dishes and half-unwrapped ingredients and chopped-up vegetables and trash bags and pots bubbling over and things dripping on the floor and children running in and out… could run me a little ragged. I’m not type A but I like things in “my office” (the kitchen) to be just so. And “just so” would be how the kitchen is when NO COOKING is going on. That’s how I like the kitchen. Clean and tidy.

Heh. Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

Do you know what I do when I feel a little insecure about something? I call my mom. When I used to do wedding flowers my mom was my right-hand man. We’ve worked so hard on so many projects together that she’s used to my constant running worry-wart commentary. She just rolls her eyes when I freak out about something and reminds me of the zillions of other times we’ve pulled off the impossible.

This year I carted her out a day early and we braved the crazy madhouse grocery store together. Did you guys go shopping on Wednesday? It was a AWFUL!!! I seriously felt like my cart was a bumper car at the carnival. All we needed was some loud Calypso music and maybe a wild wig or two and we’d be ready for the circus or the funny farm or something. It was downright scary. I’m usually very orderly in my shopping, always starting in the produce section and working my way east but this time it was all I could do to scramble here and there and make my way down my list. We forgot a million things but what can you do? It was either that or throw down some WWF wrestling moves.

The best part of getting Thanksgiving dinner ready was fulfilling our family tradition with Baby Bug for the first time. In our family it is a time honored tradition that the youngest family member stuff the first handful of stuffing into the turkey. I don’t how this started (maybe Grandma can fill us in?) but I do remember it with all my many cousins. I don’t remember doing it myself but I may have. I was probably too little to remember. Who knows. It’s just something fun we do and I was not one bit disappointed with Baby Bug’s glee to do her part.

It was all a blast. The relatives arrived early and the cousins shrieked with glee. Baby Bug and her cousin Super Chic are two peas in a pod. They are BFF for sure. I love to watch them play together.

The Dads took the kids to the beach and even though I was sad to miss out on that fun, it really helped with getting things done in the kitchen. It’s amazing how hard it is to cook or get anything done when you have a toddler who wants to help and/or be held at the same time.

Thankfully Toby’s brother (Uncle George) took a ton of great photos so I got to live that moment vicariously. I love that we are starting traditions like this in our family. It’s a very strange role that I’m now playing as the mom and person who is in charge of organizing these sorts of events but I’m thankful for it too. I know it’s a lot of responsibility but I’m up for it. There is nothing better than realizing these moments are the memories your kids will always look back on. Just like I look back on all the many thanksgivings I spent with my family.

At the end of the day, the food was good and everybody was happy. I really couldn’t ask for anything more. Well besides a cup of coffee and a big fat slice of apple pie.

I would definitely do this again.

***update***
Grandma does have the origin of this tradition! Check out her blog and leave her a comment if you think of it. She loves comments. (Doesn’t everyone?)