An additional guest this Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was my first in America in 2 years.

My brother and I decided to get ambitious, and as our parents are out of the country, we decided to host Thanksgiving ourselves. This is a big feat when you think about it. For years, upon years, you just show up to grandma's house and as the aroma of food hits you, you get excited that soon, food will make its way onto your plate and then into your belly. Rarely do you think about how that food came into being.

Then as you start getting older, and especially when your parents aren't there for you to mooch off of their credit, you begin to wonder when the right age is to offer to bring a dish of your own.

I remember vividly the first year that this happened. My parents had moved to a foreign land, and the Bearden children show up to Thanksgiving as they always had...empty handed. That is when the reality of how once you hit the age of about 21, and the title of "kids" in the family has now passed down to the grandkids and not yourself, you might want to offer to bring something to share.

I decided to skip the country myself for two years to put off this reality.

Well I was back in America this year, so I had to face my fears. Cody and I decided to ease our way into Thanksgiving, so when I say "host" I mean we had my lovely Grandma and Aunt come over to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Also, to help ease us in, my Aunt provided the turkey, stuffing and rolls. I was so grateful as I didn't have the slightest idea of how to bake/roast/fry or any other way of making a turkey go from raw meat to a delicious entree.

I hate bragging, but I was pretty excited that I managed to clean, decorate and cook 3 casseroles and a pie while having everything hot, and ready to eat at exactly the time set. I think my mom's freakishly organized lists have rubbed off on me. So my pie didn't quite set, which left us with more buttermilk pudding floating around pie crust, but for the first full out Thanksgiving I'm pretty impressed.

We ate. We chatted. We watched "Shrek the Third."

This Thanksgiving my cousin had her first child, sweet McKenzie Grace. She was a special little guest to add to their list of thanks.

This Thanksgiving we also had a little special guest. Meet "Little Dog."

Little Dog had been running around on my street Wednesday for a couple of hours, so I decided to pick him up and see if I could find his owners.
Unfortunately, Little Dog only had a rabies tag and no other ID.
Thankfully, it had the number of his vet.
Unfortunately, the vet was closed because it was past 6. Also we find out that Little Dog barks in a high pitched yelp ALL the time.
Thankfully, there was a number for an emergency clinic that got the vet in contact with me that night.
Unfortunately, the information on the tag wasn't in their new computers and the next day was a holiday, meaning we got Little Dog for Thanksgiving. Did I mention the yelp?
Thankfully, I could and did put up "Found Dog" signs all in the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, it seems no one saw them.
Thankfully, this morning the vet called me telling me they had called the owner.
Unfortunately, I didn't hear from the owner until I called the vet and got his number myself. Still yelping.
Thankfully, the owner was found. He guided me to his friend that was taking care of the dog while he was out of town and Little Dog, now known by his real name Baxter, was returned.

Little Dog/Baxter was sweet, but I think my own dog, Sugar's expression paints a clear picture of how we were all feeling. "Can we just go back to the way we were without Little Dog?"

Good Bye Little Dog, it was nice having you here for the short time, but the silence of my own dog is now much more appreciated.