Thanksgiving; the holiday right before black friday!

Ah Thanksgiving.....I really love this day. The only anticipation is the delicious food and that can never go wrong. Birthdays and Christmas there is always the worry that the recipient of my gift may not like it, and the face ALWAYS lets me know if the person likes it or not. But that fourth Thursday in November is wonderful, laid back, and exquisitely perfect for the palate. Of course if you are a person in the kitchen stirring, mixing, sweating, chopping, measuring, stuffing, flutting, basting, carving, peeling, whipping, toasting, seasoning, jelling, arriving at a boiling point, then maybe this holiday is not for you~! But you see I am never asked to do any of the above... again... NEVER am I asked to do any of the above. In fact this year as I opened my e-mail marked Thanksgiving food assignments I was surprised, even shocked at how far down the cooking pole I had actually slid....I was asked to bring.....drum roll please....BUTTER! not rolls, jams, pies, vegetables, crackers, cranberries, cranberry juice, potatoes, stuffing, appetizers of any kind, just good, creamy, soon to be on sale at the market, BUTTER! And I was a bit miffed. I flashed off a reply to fellow family members asking them to please stop holding one cooking disaster against me.....A few years ago I was asked to bring the holiday pies to Thanksgiving. This family of my husband, who are all REALLY REALLY GOOD COOKS AND PERFECTIONISTS, had opened up their circle of fine cooking and had asked me to bake the pumpkin pies for our Thanksgiving feast. I was honored and humbled. I practiced for a few weeks in advance; my convection oven cooked faster than my convention oven, too much cinnamon was not a good thing, watch the speed of the mixer, let the crusts breathe, make the foil hats for the final 10 minutes of cooking and on and on and on....my own family had never had so many darn pies! We could not look at the moon for several weeks....Anyway the day arrived, my kitchen smelled heavenly; the Pilgrim Gods were pleased. Carefully we drove to Grandma's house over the cement rivers and through the pillared woods. I anxiously awaited dessert time....I do not think I even tasted the potatoes perfectly whipped with cream and garlic, the stuffing moist with pine nuts, the sauted vegetables, the warm from the oven rolls smathered with homemade raspberry jam. Then the moment of truth, the slicing of the satiny pumpkin pie. My expert cook sister in law gingerly placed a morsel on her fork, lifted it to her mouth, began the chewing process and then....bam it was out on her plate faster than the proverbial speeding bullet...ugg....I was in dismay, shock, humiliated and any other adjectives one could insert right about now....what had happened? Was she kidding me because she knew I was apprehensive about my cooking, was this some kind of a cruel joke? No....not at all and as kindly and concernedly (my word) as she could she told me the truth....the pie tasted as if it had been made without any sweetener.....NO FLIPPIN WAY! I grabbed her fork and took a taste of it myself and as fast as the again proverbial speeding bullet the food was out on my plate. I had indeed left out a key ingredient for pumpkin pie...the SUGAR! The pie was absolutely horrific. I was distraught, embarrassed (how is this word spelled?!) and wanted to dash out the door, when my kind sister - in - law took another fork and finished the piece of pie. Of course that was the only piece eaten and she was sick for the remainder of the evening (although she blamed in on the carrots.) So this year when I was given butter I realized the family can forgive but in a family of great cooks they cannot forget. So I get butter, ice, unwhipped cream, etc. Unfortunately they have warned my side of the family and my assignment for this year's Christmas party is soda pop. Actually I am beginning to think I am the winner....and I always have clean aprons....