This is Lee Habib, and this is our Thanksgiving special here on our American Stories.

Author Stephen Rossiniak, one of our regular contributors, brings us one of his most memorable

Thanksgiving stories. This piece is entitled, An Awkward Thanksgiving. Here's Stephen sharing his story.

Don't be late, she said as we walked towards the kitchen door.

Be on time. Home by one. Dinner is at two.

Okay, okay, we got it, Mom, I answered for myself, my dad, and for my brother Jimmy, as we walked out the door.

We had no intention of disappointing her. Mom was working hard to make our Thanksgiving Day dinner special for our family and for our guests, including this year my new girlfriend,

Karen. We would absolutely be home on time for mom. Well, at least that was the plan. There was something warm and wonderful about my

childhood Thanksgiving mornings, things like the aroma of the bird that mom had prepped and placed

into the oven long before I was even out of bed, already filling the house with the succulent

scent of roasted turkey, and how she was busily attending to a myriad of other early morning preparations

in advance of our family's feast.

Me and my brothers, Paul and Jimmy, and our sister, Anne,

were extra careful to stay out of Mom's way as we eagerly anticipated all of the food

and goodies yet to come, especially the pies and the sugar-coated peanut butter-filled dates.

While we were hunkered down watching the annually televised Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade,

our dad would be tossing logs into the blaze that he'd lit earlier in the living room fireplace.

But one year, as mom was busy doing all of the usual things that she did early every

Thanksgiving morning, Dad, Jimmy, and I left to go cut down some trees.

Dad and I had partnered with a friend in a part-time tree-cutting business.

Working solely for one developer,

our job was to clear just one or two building lots per month,

...