It's November 20th. I can't remember how the Thanksgiving date rule goes but it is conceivable that were today a Thursday it could actually be All Turkey's Eve. The weather is certainly cooperating in the ruse--it's in the 40s, dark grey, raw, desolate. It also helps that we're cooking for a dinner that friends are coming over for... but it's not turkey, it's homemade ravioli. Still, the Thanksgiving vibe is definitely happening. I went out to the store a while ago to get some last minute ingredients (a Thanksgiving tradition) and it was packed with other frantic shoppers apparently in the same dilemma. When I got home Emily had started cooking a sauce with shallots and vegatables and it totally smelled like fancy stuffing.

I don't really embrace the holidays all that much--mostly because of my lack of religion and my cynicism about commercialism and consumer culture--but every year around this time for an hour or two I do experience this sort of nostalgic wistful feeling that must be what the Butterball commercials are attempting to inspire in me.

We will actually be out of town with family this Thursday for the real thing, so tonight I will have my Vermont Thanksgiving inner glow--nobody tell my mom, she wants to have a late Thanksgiving dinner with us when we get back from Illinois and I don't want her to think I've spent all my inner glow early. (no mom jokes, Mark)

Happy (almost) turkey day.