November, with its dark days and falling temperatures, is hard for me.  Its saving grace is Thanksgiving--my favorite holiday.  We’ve already put some entries into our 2013 Grateful Jar and done the first round of grocery shopping.  Family no-shows are not permitted at Thanksgiving, so the usual middle-of-the-night departure by the family in Maryland with a stop for breakfast and Seth-pick up in New York City is set in stone.  They should be here for Wednesday lunch.

Although Peter and I love good food and enjoy cooking, we find that we don’t eat as much as we used to.  Add to that my gluten-intolerance, which limits the variety of junk (and good, but has gluten) food we have in the house, and our cupboards are relatively bare by the kids’ standards.

My daughter-in-law Katrina has given me the updated list of what the grandchildren can’t live without:  juice, including something non-alcoholic, but sparkling so they too have a wine bottle, a dozen and a half cups of yogurt,  granola bars,  cereals with names like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, assorted chips, a life-time supply of pretzels, bagels and enough fruit to start a produce market.  Of course that's without the last minute stuff—like three different kinds of milk, fresh veggies and the turkey.

This is the time of year when I wish an extra refrigerator and oven would miraculously appear. But somehow we manage to make it all work.

I can’t wait.