Many years ago, when my children were very small, our family hosted Thanksgiving dinner. I spent weeks preparing, crafting the menu, shopping for needs, cleaning our home, and setting the China. The morning of Thanksgiving, we carefully balanced entertaining our children with keeping our house clean and perfectly timing the turkey for our guests. We graciously hosted an elderly couple far from family or friends who would have otherwise spent Thanksgiving alone. As I served the gentleman a generous slice of apple pie with ice cream, he turned and asked. “Is this homemade?”

Just like the Thanksgiving turkey is stuffed with dressing, the holidays are filled with expectations.