The latest etsybloggers blog carnival topic is “Thanksgiving Thoughts,” which is silly because we all know thanksgiving was a month ago. Wait, what? Americans celebrate thanksgiving in November? Why on earth would they do that? Everyone knows it is in October.

I guess it doesn’t really matter when you celebrate your turkey day, the scene is the same in houses across the continent, no matter when it is held. A frenzy of cooking, an occasional shout from the den as every male in the family cheers on the sports team on the TV (football in US, Hockey up here) and enough turkey, stuffing and wine to fill 100 people, despite the fact that you only invited 15.

I was born Chantelle Tremblay and although I am technically now a Finley, I still relish big family dinners and will always be a Tremblay on the holidays. My new husband Adam needed a little while to recover from his first experience of a Tremblay Holiday when he came to the first one 6 years ago as “the new boyfriend.” Poor guy just didn’t know what he was in for since his family dinners, while very nice, are generally a few hours shorter than ours and require considerably less energy. To help other unsuspecting future additions to our family or to help give you a glimpse of my life growing up, I prepared the following checklist for anyone who thinks they are ready to tackle a Tremblay Family Holiday.

1. Buy the biggest ham shank in North America. We don’t really do the turkey thing - french ham is our family holiday dinner, so you’ll have to get over the lack of poultry before we go any further..
2. Count your chairs. If you have more guests than chairs, gather up all the stools, boxes and blow-up exercise balls you can find in the house.
3. Count your forks. Again, if you have more guests than forks scrounge for anything remotely fork-like and use them for the kids table since they won’t mind eating with swizzle stick pitchforks.
4. Reconcile yourself to the fact that no matter how lavishly you decorate your table, everyone will still fight for seats at the kids table.
5. If dinner is scheduled to be served at 6, it will be served at 8. Just get used to it. It happens every year.
6. Rummage through the house for every bit of embarrassing paraphernalia you can find from your children’s childhood to bring out like Santa once all the guests are settled in the den. Macaroni picture of turkeys and stories of the first time your child tried to make you dinner will work, as well as pictures of them in goofy Halloween costumes. This step is even more essential if your children are bringing new boyfriends or girlfriends.
7. Forget the stereotypical football game and just flip to Hockey night in Canada for the men. It’ll save them having to change the channel from the football game you thought they’d watch to the hockey game.
8. If the Leafs happen to be playing the Senators, prepare for a long night.
9. Calculate the amount of wine needed and then add one bottle to that total - for Chantelle to spill on the carpet. If you have a white or cream coloured couch, add two bottles.
10. Buy the biggest pot known to mankind for the ham. Make everyone else move it around for you. Throw in a couple needless trips for the pot from the top of the stove to the counter and back just to make the men feel like they are helping.
11. Don’t let the men help, unless you are barbecuing thanksgiving dinner.
12. Put bells on the collars of all the cats or you’ll never find them again when it is time to leave. (Yes, we bring the cats - we all live indifferent cities) If you can’t find Jingle, look behind the DVD player.
13. You are required to serve all of the following for dessert: Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Coconut Cream Pie and Lemon Pie. We don’t really care what you give us for dinner, as long as there’s pie.
14. Practice your interrupting-people-in-the-middle-of-a-word skills or you’ll never get a word in edge-wise.
15. A game of Balderdash is traditional after dinner. A hint about the players: Tia’s entry will always have a culture in it (”An English sport,” “A Mexican resort,” and “An Egyptian photocopier” are all previous definitions she has used), Mom’s is the one that either has birds in it or sounds like a university professor wrote it. Dad’s is usually funny, and sometimes a bit gross. Chantelle’s answer doesn’t usually make sense until you read it about 8 times, Terry’s is always about an animal and Adam’s is the one that always needs clarification (but usually the one we always pick).
16. Make sure you have a lot of blankets because no one should drive after that much Balderdash.
17. Eat, drink & Be Merry. The number one rule is that even if you ignore all the rest of the checklist, just have fun being together and it will be a successful Tremblay Dinner no matter what else happens.