Thanksgiving 2007

Simplicity. It's a beautiful thing. Because I chose simplicity over perfection this year, I looked like this:

happy, calm, collected, and relaxed instead of like this:

which I look like most years. In case you can't tell, this is the "get out of my kitchen before I stab you with this little paring knife" look. I'm often a little more than on edge when I'm preparing a nice meal and trying to get it all on the table, hot and perfectly presented. Especially when there are extra people in my kitchen. I often want to wield a threatening paring knife and menacing scowl at those who step foot in my kitchen uninvited on a day like today, but I'm too nice. So I swallow the menacing scowl and rename it stress.

But not today. No, today I relaxed. Dinner was 5 minutes late. And I forgot to add the cranberries and almonds to the stuffing. And I smiled. It did help, though, that I didn't have extra bodies in the kitchen. It also helped that I'm learning how to make things ahead of time so that I have less to do the day of. I'm also learning how to ignore those who mock me for setting out the dishes the night before. But because I planned ahead and relaxed today, the paring knife stayed in my hand in not in them. So they should be thankful. They should also be thankful that they got to eat pies like these:

and sit at a table like this:


Yes, simplicity is a good way to go. I'll have to try it again next year.