Chaos: It's Whats For Dinner

I spent the bulk of my childhood years running from house to house on Thanksgiving. My dad, mom, three siblings and I would eat a full turkey meal complete with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie for lunch and then do it all over again in the evening. Lunch with my mom's side of the family and dinner with my dad's.

So Thanksgiving for me always unequivocally meant lots of running around, shoveling food into my mouth and a blur of relatives. So you'll understand why I was so confused when I met my husband and he described Thanksgiving as "relaxing." His version of the holiday is to lay around on the couch for most of the day, watching football. Of course, he was occasionally asked to complete a task like peel the potatoes (which always end up the size of golf balls when he's done whittling them down), but it generally meant lots of sweatshirts, television and beer before sitting down to a lazy dinner.

You can imagine his dismay when we spent our first Thanksgiving together. I think it was when we were racing down the highway, freaking out because we were already late for my aunt's house when he asked me, "Aren't holidays supposed to be FUN?"

Thanks to him, I've learned to slow down a bit and take time to actually enjoy the holidays. And thanks to me, he's learned that holidays are a heck of a lot of work. But, in the past few years, we've managed to find a happy medium. And of course, when things get too nuts, we can always head down to Cancun for the week, like we did a couple of years ago. Because nothin' says Turkey Day like frozen margaritas and salsa!