Thanksgiving Day Questionnaire

1. Which do you like better: Cooking at your house, or going elsewhere?
I don't do any of the cooking (my husband does), but I do prefer it when we have the dinner at our house. I like setting the table. I like opening up our home to family and friends.

2. Do you buy a fresh or frozen bird?
Fresh. In the past Ed has ordered up one from Stoysich, but this year he just bought a fresh one at the grocery store.

3. What kind of stuffing?
There is this stuffing that my mom has made all of our lives and I absolutely adore it. It has bread and eggs and celery and God-knows-what-else in it. My sister Marcy made it this year (under mom's supervision). My sisters Jodie and Kathy also know how to make it.

4. Sweet potato or pumpkin pie?
PUMPKIN!!!!!!

5. Do you believe that turkey leftovers are a curse, or the point of the whole thing?
I don't mind the white meat leftover because that makes nice salads and sandwiches, but the rest of it I can live without.

6. Which side dish would provoke a riot if you left it off the menu?
With my family, it would definitely be mom's stuffing.

7. Do you save the carcass to make soup or stock?
What an amusing idea! No, we don't save it, and I'd probably protest if my husband tried anything like that!

8. What do you wish you had that would make preparing Thanksgiving dinner easier?
A week off with pay (and without diminishing the vacation balance), a live-in housekeeper, and a session with a professional massage therapist each day. I have no idea what my husband would require, but that would help me get ready!

9. Do you get up at the crack of dawn to have dinner ready in the early afternoon, or do you eat at your normal dinner hour?
Does 7:30 a.m. count as the crack of dawn? Ed starts cooking a day or two prior to Thanksgiving, then he coordinates everything in the morning for cooking. I spend the morning tidying up the house and getting the table ready. I also pick up my mother-in-law. We usually eat at 12:00 noon or thereabouts just because it's what my mom likes.

10. If you go to somebody else's house, what's your favorite dish to bring?
That's not up to me. However, when we have gone to someone else's home for Thanksgiving, Ed is often requested to bring is sour cream pecan pie and the corn pudding.

11. What do you wish one of your guests wouldn't bring to your house?
Lack of appetite.

12. Does your usual mix of guests result in drama, or is it a group you're happy to see?
People we have to our own home are quite a happy bunch. In fact, I can't think of much drama for family gatherings, except for after the fact (we're a passive-aggressive group).

13. What's your absolute favorite thing on the menu?
Oh, I think I answered that above: my mom's dressing. But, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the turkey and the pumpkin pie as well.