As the last of the leaves fall from the trees and a winter chill fills the air, I am preparing to head back to Ohio for Thanksgiving. The trip will be made by car and will consist of a three-day whirlwind tour of Toledo, my hometown. This is my first Thanksgiving with my family in three years, so I am very excited to say the least.
    That’s not to say the last couple of Thanksgivings weren’t interesting. Last year we decided to cook dinner at the home of an acquaintance who volunteered her kitchen. As soon as I agreed to this I knew it was going to be a problem. Our host was a somewhat abrasive woman who did not have the word compromise in her vocabulary. Even though I was doing almost all of the cooking the host dictated every aspect of the dinner, including what time the cooking could begin and who would be invited.
    She became annoyed at the addition of a last minute guest and refused to put out the salad he brought because she made one of her own. The dinner got even more uncomfortable when another guest wanted to invite a friend over for dessert. Our host was not happy. She and the guest got involved in a shouting match that resulted in the guest being asked to leave. After all of this the remaining dinner guests were forced to sit through a rather uncomfortable (albeit well prepared) meal, when all we wanted to do was flee.
    The year prior my boyfriend’s roommates announced they would be cooking the feast. After pitching in the required amount of money for the festivities (which included a gourmet turkey with all the trimmings), we learned they would not be eating until almost 10 p.m. As my boyfriend Tim and I both work in newspapers and did not have the next day off work, we decided this was too late and cooked our own dinner at my house, though we had to “eat” the $80 we had already pitched in for the first dinner.
    I hope that the trip home will be free of any of the aforementioned drama. However, my favorite holiday movie is “Home for the Holidays” starring Holly Hunter and Robert Downey, Jr. In the movie the Larson family convenes in Baltimore for their annual Thanksgiving dinner. Hunter plays the daughter who “got away” by moving to Chicago and Downey the comic relief in the form of a quirky son who does not get along with another sibling in the family and uses every opportunity to antagonize her. Throw in crazy old aunt Glady, a recently retired father with an obsession for washing cars, a chain smoking mother (Anne Bancroft) who wears a variety of wigs, and a mysterious stranger (Dylan McDermott) and you’ve got a recipe for disaster (or laughter depending on how you look at it.)
    My trip home will probably more closely resemble this movie. It’s the first time Tim will meet my entire family. My mother and I will be in charge of the cooking (an organic, native turkey I will bring from Maine) while my grandfather will regale the family with various tales of a “back in the day nature.” Tim and my stepfather will attempt to watch football while my grandfather recalls the time I threw a fit in an Arizona restaurant when I was 5-years-old because I wanted to put on my own coat by flipping it over my head. The end of the story results in me being carried kicking and screaming from the restaurant after I failed at the coat flipping experiment.
    My grandfather has an endless well of these stories, enough to carry us straight through dessert. My wayward brother will boast about his latest art project, and with any luck no one will get into an argument. After dinner we’ll pass the phone around and chat with my two stepbrothers, who live in California and Maryland, and won’t be coming home this year. This all sounds pretty tame, but this will be the first time my mother and I have cooked together, so anything can happen.
    Tim is also a picky eater, so when he fills his plate with only meat and potatoes there is sure to be some questions from my veggie loving family. After dinner and for the rest of the weekend Tim and I will zip around the city visiting all of my other relatives and friends I only see once a year. I’ve warned him to be prepared for three days of non-stop socializing and to put on a “happy face” because I have a somewhat large extended family, and Tim is a bit of an introvert.
    Last Christmas my favorite cousin’s new girlfriend started to become cranky after only three Christmas stops.
    “You better perk up,” he said in a teasing manner, though he was quite serious. “We’ve got a lot more stops to make before this is all over.”
    I have the same advice for Tim. Having a big family is great, and all the visiting can get exhausting — but I can’t wait. I’m sure the holiday will be filled with laughter and new memories (stories for grandpa to tell next year), and with any luck the perfectly cooked turkey won’t end up in anyone’s lap like it does in “Home for the Holidays.”