The One Day That Is Ours...

There is one day that is ours.

Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.

-O. Henry

This American has Thanksgiving on the brain today. I gasped and then gulped upon walking into my hotel late last night and seeing a lobby full of not one... or two... but three decked out and glowing Christmas trees. But what about Thanksgiving?! I cried. What about the pilgrims and the turkey and the giving of thanks?!

I backed out of the hotel and jumped in the car and didn't come back in to face the Christmas trees until I had not one... or two... but three Thanksgiving magazines in hand. Ha. There.

Don't you just love, love, love Thanksgiving? Truly. And to help get us there, the Martha Stewart Living this month is excellent. Look at these candles! Don't they make you think of a beautiful lady in a long, calico-and-eyelet skirt, dipping candles and singing Sarah Brightman songs to her dog?

Oh. Well, I do.

Hmm... Since we're flipping through the magazine, don't forget to check out the pie on page 32. This is, after all, the one time of year you can justify the time it takes to make a Martha Stewart pie.

The rest of the year, it's pile and poke and pies. As in, pile in the filling, poke holes in the crust, and bake until done or until someone snatches it out of the oven and dives in. Just a few weeks ago I made the mother of all Texas Thanksgiving pies: sweet potato and pecan in one. Hoo boy. There were no words. None. Not one.

This picture was before I poured the frothy sugar pecan pie part on top and then added a braided crust and baked it. I would have an after picture, only a friend and her friend came by as the beauty was cooling and I didn't have time to grab the camera. Darn. Guess I'll have to make it again, huh?

But not today. Today I'm sitting in my still-appropriately-fall-decorated Kansas hotel room and planning an afternoon excursion to Dorothy's house - both the real Dorothy's house and the one they used to film the Wizard of Oz. I'll be fun and silly and see as much as I can while I'm here because Thanksgiving is just days away....

And I don't want to lose a moment. I want to find as much to be thankful for - magazines and Martha and pies aside - as this American girl possibly can...