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Aunty Pam

 

Dear Aunty Pam,

 

I know you get a ton of letters from dysfunctional families about Thanksgiving this time of year, but can you stand one more? Please??

 

My family plays round-robin with Thanksgiving dinner, and every year we go to a different sibling’s house, or my parents, and each one of us is supposed to bring something for the meal. Every year I make a sweet potato casserole which everyone loves and requests, along with a homemade cranberry and orange relish. My brother and sister-in-law bring really great mac ‘n cheese.

 

My sister, however, makes no effort and brings a pie that she picks up at a bakery. It really irks me that she can’t be bothered to make something like the rest of us. She says she’s too busy and hasn’t got the time. I told her last year we’re all busy and somehow make the time. Any advice on what I should say to her this year?

 

Signed,

DB

 

Dear DB,

 

What are you, 5? For goodness sakes, woman, what does it matter if someone bakes a pie or brings a pie? Does this heinous imposter of a homemade pie ruin the dinner to which everyone sits down? Does the table conversation immediately turn to murmurs of stern reproving and exasperated sighs that anyone could do such a thing as to bring a pie from a bakery which is probably wonderfully delicious? Does your mother bolt from the table in floods of tears over such an act of betrayal as to actually buy a pie?

 

Maybe your sister really is too busy to bake something as good as one she can buy at a shop? Maybe she’s a crap baker and hates the process? Maybe you’re making a praline toasted, whipped pumpkin mountain out of molehill.

 

There seems to be quite a bit more percolating beneath the surface that’s going on here…a bit of longtime sibling rivalry perhaps?

 

Look, it’s admirable that you go to the trouble to make a great casserole and relish. But no one is holding a gun to your head to do it. You obviously enjoy doing it, or feel some sort of obligation to do it, but your sister doesn’t and that needn’t be a point of contention unless YOU choose to make it so.

 

Aunty Pam highly recommends you get over yourself and arrive at this year’s dinner full of gratitude that everyone is together, safe and healthy enough to eat the stupid pie.

 

Cheers, dear!

Aunty Pam

 

Dear Aunty Pam,

 

What’s the name of that weird looking rodent that lives in Peru that sort of looks like a fat rabbit?

 

Signed,

Curious

 

Dear Curious,

 

Viscacha. Next?

 

Cheers, dear!

Aunty Pam