I know there are plenty of things I should be doing.....

but sitting here on the couch, curled up with coffee and a blanket was much more inviting.  It just was. 

I mean, think about it.  I will spend the rest of today and tomorrow preparing food for what will take about 30 minutes to eat.  Sigh.  That's a shame, isn't it?? 

I haven't completely decided what all we're having tomorrow.  I know....I know....it's the day before Thanksgiving, but I can throw in a last minute decision if I want to....I'm the one doing the cooking!!  And just for the record....I think I'm gonna' be a rebel this year and not make mashed potatoes. 

There.

I said it. 

You heard me correctly.  No mashed potatoes.  I mean, really.  I make them often enough, and isn't it the dressing that we all get so hyped up about on Thanksgiving??  Or wait.... is it called stuffing?  And...is there really a difference between the two?  Couldn't you just stuff the dressing into the bird, and then call it stuffing????

And really....who CARES what it's called?

Now, back to me being a rebel and not making mashed potatoes....  

That is SO not my style.  Matter of fact, the only thing I'm good at doing "rebel" style is talking smack.  When it all comes down to it....sigh.....I will probably end up making those darn mashed potatoes because somehow I will feel guilty that Paw-Paw loves them so much or that "Thanksgiving just won't be the same without them." 

But if I were to be a rebel...just think of the dishes I wouldn't be dirtying by not making them.  The big pot, the mixing bowl, the spatula......oh forget it.  I just don't have it in me to be a rebel. 

And was it really the best decision I've ever made as a mother to ask each member of the family what their favorite Thanksgiving dish was?  I mean....one would think that I would get answers like...dessert, dessert, and more dessert. 

Instead, Jack looks at me with "that look", and almost gets choked up as he quietly says, "dumplins".  Ugh.  Knife in my heart. 

Yep...you guessed it.  Mable again.  She made dumplins just for him ALL the time.  It didn't matter that it was Thanksgiving and we were going to have enough food to feed "Cox's Army" (as she used to say)....(and who was that anyway...I've always wondered.) 

Yep...if she ever found out something was your favorite, then you could count on having it....often.  So here I would be, making the traditional Thanksgiving foods, and she would walk through the door with a pot of dumplins for "Jack Marshall".  

Sigh.  

So of course, when he says it yet again...I nearly start squawling and think to myself..."why did I ask?"   And if this picture doesn't touch your heart....nothing will. 

Yes, those are homemade dumplins.  Jack was only 3 that year.....how sweet is that?  

Gulp.  What was I thinking......

Fortunately, the other requests weren't quite as sappy.  Homemade cranberry salad, turnip greens....you know....nothin' too crazy.  But then Karissa had to go and ask for rutabegas.  (Don't feel bad...I didn't know what they were either until I moved here.)

And I hate to get all sappy again, but rutabegas were the last thing I asked Mable to show me how to make....just a few weeks before she passed away. 

The longer I sit here and think about it, the more I realize that there is not a day that goes by in my kitchen that something I do or make doesn't have her name written all over it. 

I am thankful for many things this Thanksgiving.  But I am especially thankful that God blessed me with a mother-in-law that taught me so many new things in the kitchen as well as life lessons I couldn't have learned any other way. 

I'm just sayin'.