Hostess With the Mostest

I'm channeling Martha. I am hosting Thanksgiving. It's been a few years since everyone came over here, as we usually go to my mom or my sister's house. My mother is weary from jet lag, my sister handles Christmas, and to be honest, it's time for me to grow up and claim more cooking/hostessing responsibilities. My cooking jobs are the mashed potatoes, my mother-in-law's stuffing, and a pumpkin pie. Dear sister and mommy will bring the rest. To say I'm excited to pull out my new Williams-Sonoma chicken tablecloth and matching linens would be overstating it, but at least I have something presentable to chuck the turkey on this year. Our dining room table has been in our possession for 3 years, all that time without a dining cloth.

Today, Nora and I got out the good silver and cleaned it ( Truly, that kid doesn't miss a trick and will be able to gut a fish by age 15.) The silverware is an old set, circa 1940. My inlaws bought it for us for Christmas a couple of years back. Ten years ago I would have said it was "old-fashioned, too stuffy." But I've matured, and I see the beauty in finer, somewhat useless things now. Never mind it will sit side-saddle with chipped Pottery Barn plates.

The bread is out, getting "stale" for the stuffing. Tomorrow I will consider shining up the metal chargers. HA!!!!!! Those would be the chargers I had to have when we got married. They resemble UFOs and have silver beading on the edges. They looked great on the Pottery Barn display table. I've never used them. If anyone decided to look deeper into the bowels of my nastiness, they will be disappointed. Scot and I cleaned out the fridge last week, as I had some items that had fallen between shelves and fermented to the walls.

If I forget something for Thursday, I already feel like I'm ahead of the game. Never in a million years did I think I would be showing my daughter how to polish silver. Who AM I ? And when did someone with fine cutlery invade my home?