It was Thanksgiving Day and all of my homemade pumpkin soup and pumpkin puree I had so tirelessly prepped during the week and froze cracked, broke, and poured into my tiny freezer. I was preparing dinner entirely by myself for the first time since Terry was volunteering at the homeless shelter, so fter a few choice words on my list of horrible experiences involving pretty much all of my recent experiences with Ball quart jars, I was forced to resort to the quick and easy "ingredients on hand" version of a pumpkin pie (or pies actually) that I could accomplish along with all of the other holiday tasks in time for our company. So...I took to the internet to find a version that was lower in sugar than the one printed on the can and, as usual, I ended up combining bits and pieces of recipes from all over to get the perfect pie I needed.

Over the past week my refrigerator has become a haven for excess goods brought to us by friends and neighbors, my pantry stocked up with cans and boxes of instant stuffing, and the car overstuffed with boxes and bags of clothing. No, we're not hoarders and this overstock is certainly not for our low-key Thanksgiving Day dinner. We have been putting in extra hours lately helping a friend and his church gather clothing for his homeless shelter and outreach program and preparing for a revisited tradition Terry and I used to do annually until we had Eamon: delivering hot meals to the homeless.

For many the beginning of the Holiday season begins on Thanksgiving Day, however, for us, it *officially* begins on Thanksgiving parade day...no, not the big New York parade or even the Thanksgiving Day parade here in Philly. Every year we take Eamon to get his first glimpse of Santa Claus at the Mayfair Thanksgiving Parade in northeast Philadelphia. There are dancers, Irish bands, the all-important Mummers appearances, and, of course, Santa. It's a simple parade full of average, everyday folk, and things like that are just what we like.