What Are You Thankful For?

     It's as cliche as it come, but what are you really thankful for?  Seeing that Thanksgiving is coming up, and it is my favorite holiday of the year.  It might be a random holiday to be in love with, but I do for various reasons.  For the most part, I just enjoy having everyone come to my house.  It seems silly, but having people attend an event that my family is in charge of makes my day.  It's like throwing the biggest party of the year, and each year everyone looks forward to it.  A full night the night before is a pregame of sorts for the big day to come.  The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is typically the night that all of my relatives come into town, and flock ,like wild birds moving south for the winter, to the casa de Pantel for some afternoon story telling and dinner. Why not have a multiple day event?  Its so traditional now, that I couldn't see my holiday week with out it.
     My mom has really dedicated her, I wouldn't say life, but enormous amount of energy it takes to plan this massive event.  She takes off the entire week of and a couple days of the week before, just to clean and make recipes for all the food thats needed to be prepared.  She has kind of built a reputation for having the best holiday of the year in our family.  My mom was designated to hold Thanksgiving every year for the whole family to attend.  All the others siblings get to split Christmas every year.  HA!  Can't compare to the festivities the month before.  For some reason the people gravitate to our simple homey style of living.  We all live the same basic way of just letting things happen and not getting overly stressed over simple problems.  When everybody else would be going nuts on if the turkey is over/under cooked or if they have enough drinks for everyone.  It seems like it always flows smoothly and ends up perfect every year.
     Something my mom and dad agree'd on this year, and was something that made me want to grow up and have that same type of attitude was adding an extra family to the equation.  No they don't have to bring a platter of food, or really any drinks, but they will because of the hospitality.  Anyways my cousin-in-law's mother, brother and wife, and sister will be joining the rest of our family this year.  Pretty miraculous to believe that they would add another four plus people to a holiday evening that should be ready to explode the tension.  They did it.
    It's awesome though to experience, and if I could bring all of my friends I would, but I don't think that would be a possibility.  Let's just say I'm overly excited to smell the Turkey baking in the laundry room, and ready to bust open a cold brewski at about noon and prepare for the evening.