Thanksgiving kind of snuck up on me this year.

How can that be, you ask? I mean, food and family-dinner fanatics usually don’t space out Thanksgiving, right?

I’m not making excuses (well, yes I am), but I’ve been living in the self-absorbed bubble that is buying and renovating a house; prepping, purging, and selling an old house; packing 12 years’ worth of stuff; and unpacking, setting up, plugging in, and trying to make life feel normal in what still feels kind of like a vacation rental (Sweetie, where do we keep the coffee cups? Mom, where’s the glue?).

Now the dust is (literally) settling. Instead of a kitchen full of boxes, we have a lovely green card table. But still. We have a house. And I am thankful for that. In addition to being super excited to roast a turkey in my brand new oven, I am thrilled to be back at my desk (I’m thrilled to have a desk) working on new blog posts and recipes for my upcoming cooking classes.

In the meantime, I wanted to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. I hope you spend it with people you love and that it’s a chance to relax, reconnect, and — of course — give thanks. I hope you’re not going shopping, but if you must, I hope the deals are worth it.

I just wanted to let you know that I am thankful for all you for taking the time to read this blog, make the occasional comment, and cheer me on while share my passion for dinner. I truly believe that eating well — from knowing what to buy to how to plan meals to how to cook without stressing yourself out — will change all of our lives for the better in so many way. And I’m thankful that so many of you feel that way, too. Thank you for your patience with me during this transition. While I’m thankful to have a new home and a pretty white kitchen (with cabinet doors even!), I’m more grateful for the food we have to cook in it and the people in my life I get to share it with.

As much as I hate ending a sentence with a preposition, that’s all I’ve got for today.

Oh yeah, I’m making cranberry sauce this morning, and if you need a recipe for that, I gotta say mine is pretty amazing and impossible to screw up. Happy Thanksgiving!