THANKSGIVING: Where is Everybody Going to Sit?

It's almost Thanksgiving and my husband and I are anticipating playing our annual table game. It's not Scrabble or Monopoly, although we may bring them out during the holiday weekend.

It's literally a table game.

Our table game can last several hours, is as challenging as a puzzle, sometimes involves a board and there is always a lot of counting and moving pieces around.

Our table game is trying to figure out how to get everyone around the Thanksgiving dinner table. We live in a shapely old farmhouse with an octagonal dining room and pentagon-shaped foyer just big enough for several people to put on their coats and check their hair in the mirror. In addition to the front door and staircase, the entrance includes doorways to the living room, dining room and kitchen. That being said, there's no way for the dining room table run into the hall or an adjacent room.

So, our table game requires us to figure out which tables to use in order to seat the most people. Our guest list ranges from 18 to 25 people, and the challenge is made more difficult each year, when the child we stuck in a high chair or squeezed onto a bench with other small cousins has suddenly outgrown the space.

We've created long banquet tables, using plywood and sawhorses. We've used the ping-pong table. We've made a T-shaped table by adding a picnic table to the end. Most recently, we wisely invested in a six-foot folding table. We've used matching tablecloths to disguise our makeshift tables and, more than once, when a glass of wine over-turned, we were grateful that there wasn't something fancy underneath.

Over the years, we've gotten smart and taken pictures of the table so we'll remember the following November what we did the year before. But when we look at the pictures of the beautifully set tables, we kick ourselves for not taking a "before" picture.

For many Thanksgiving hosts, the challenge is in the food preparation, but in our house by the time Thursday arrives, we have faced our toughest challenge—how the fit everyone around the table. Everything else is just stuffing, literally, squeezing our guests around the table. Sometimes, it's a little too cozy, but it's Thanksgiving and it's family.