[Marilyn]

We have Thanksgiving at our house. This will be the first year that Melissa will not be here. We encouraged her to spend the day with her new hubby's family. They celebrate his paternal grandmother's birthday on Thanksgiving afternoon, and her health is not the best. She has cancer, it's been in remission, but I've heard she isn't doing as well now and all she wants for her birthday is to have all her family there. Melissa and her hubby will be coming for the weekend and I've promised to have leftovers and pie for them.

Karen will be coming, and we have invited some friends who will not be celebrating with their families to join us this year. So it should be a nice day. We take the cooking very seriously and roast turkey with stuffing, mounds of mashed potatoes & giblet gravy, broccoli, corn, mashed spiced sweet potatoes with marshmello's and pecans, sour cream and lettuce for salad, cranberries. For desert, sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. The cooking is always a joint effort between me, hubby and anyone else who happens to walk by the kitchen. We'll put everyone to work if we can.

I'm taking the day off before to get the house and everything ready for the big day. This is Karen's favorite holiday.