happy thanksgiving!

i pondered what to post this week and sort of obsessed over which thanksgiving recipe i would dazzle all 9 of you with. then as time wore on, i realized that most people don't really experiment on thanksgiving. i mean, outside of frying the turkey or using fresh cranberries instead of the stuff in the can, most people have to have certain thanksgiving dishes. Mac and cheese is one. My Canadian sister-in-law couldn't believe we had Kraft dinner on Thanksgiving. I have to eat the pope's nose on the turkey (the tail). This will be the first year since 2000 I'll have to fight my brother for it. I make the best stuffing in the world, and my pies have garnered me more than one marriage proposal.

But y'all don't care about what I'm making for Thanksgiving, you're thinking about what YOU have to have. Your aunt's sweet potatoes. Your grandpa's turkey carving knife. Your weird cousin's awful ambrosia that nobody likes or eat but wouldn't DARE leave off the table.

So I'm not going to cook for you this week. This week I'm going express my thanks for some of the people and things that have made 2010 one of the best of my life so far...

this guy, for sure.

and these two, who are the parents of the next two.

these two.

this.

and this.

and last but not least, this girl.