T Minus One Day to T-Day!

My Thanksgiving preparations actually began yesterday- making the pie crust dough and the cranberries. Today my mom came over and we worked for a couple of hours. It was so much fun! I've mentioned before my love of a delicious homemade meal, so obviously Thanksgiving is a great day for me. We made a banana cream pie (Bruce is going to be so happy), a cherry pie, an apple streusel pie, a broccoli casserole (a Barratt Family tradition), and the sweet potatoes. I'm actually making two kinds of sweet potatoes. When I mentioned to George that I was in charge of the sweet potatoes, he said, "Are they the kind layered with apples?" And when I said they weren't he was sure disappointed, so I volunteered to make whatever kind it was that he had in mind. Well, it took him about a heartbeat to track down the recipe for "Parker Candied Sweet Potatoes," and I hope I don't completely screw up an old family recipe. And if it's a "secret" old family recipe, I guess the secret is OUT.

My mom and I did giggle a little about George's race to his little black recipe box (I think I recognized your handwriting, Amber...), but then we spoke seriously about the emotional connections we all have to food. Certainly the sweet potatoes have a special place in George's memory bank. I think even just the smells can conjure up memories, and to sit down to a meal where the foods have been prepared the same way for generations can be almost like a journal in that the memories conjured up are so specific and seem so fresh. My Grandma Judd always made the most delicious stuffing, and part of the secret is the two pounds of butter (no joke), but I think the other part is that since my mom makes her stuffing the same way, the mere consumption of it is a trip down memory lane, as well as a testament to familial relationships. I think that is why I love Thanksgiving so much- there is love in every dish. Everything is prepared a certain way (if you are a Judd, the "certain way" for EVERY dish is: WITH BUTTER), and everyone looks forward with eagerness to the deliciousness. My mom and I have been working hard (her harder than me), but I really feel like it is worth it to have a fantastic Thanksgiving with friends and family.

Kiki has reached a little milestone- she is putting two words together now. "Bye, Bye, Da-da," she said this morning. It seems like a little thing, but since she said so little for so long, I was pretty excited. She is also saying, "this," "that," and "nana" which is banana. Funnily enough, she sometimes addresses Bruce as "Ma-Pa." It made me remember Kate as a baby. I was smug because she said "Mama" first, but soon found out that she was adressing Bruce. When she finally got around to talking to me, I was "Becca" and we stayed on a first name basis for a couple of years. It was a cute little thing she did, and I was a little sad when she DID start to call me Mama.