I think my lists have lists this month. I am sure you know the feeling. Each year I spend a lot of time trying to keep crass commercialism out of the Christmas season. As a family, we decorate a tree for charity. We select a theme and then plot together on how to make the tree reflect that theme. This year, given our family's love of the Outer Banks, we decorated the tree with hand-painted shells. We are calling it OBXmas. It has been a yearlong project since we started collecting shells on our vacation last December. Making these ornaments and seeing the trees that others design ensure that this is one of my favorite holiday traditions.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Here's hoping your celebration makes some wonderful memories. I am just cooking for our immediate family as my parents are off visiting my sister in Atlanta. I love to cook and thus am going through "large gathering cooking withdrawal." Thus I am spending the afternoon at my friend Rachel's helping her cook for her 20 guests. Looking forward to chopping. By the way, I have a killer turkey recipe that I created about 10 years ago if any of you need it. I stuff it with herbs and baste it in butter and red wine.