This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

This is our American stories, and today we have a feature from one of our regular contributors,

Stephen Rossiniac. This is a special

Thanksgiving piece entitled An Awkward Thanksgiving. Here's Stephen sharing his story.

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

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

Of course, we had no intention of disappointing her.

After all, as always, 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, easy enough for weekend work. That is, until we received a call

the night before Thanksgiving, informing us that

one particular lot needed to be cleared by Saturday morning. Now, Dad suggested that we get a jump

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