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This will be the first time in my entire life that I am totally in charge of cooking Thanksgiving dinner.  Guess it's a good thing that it will just be the four of us: The Golfer, The Monkey, The Cheese, and me.  (Sounds like the name of a funky rock band, doesn't it?)

Because we decided to go home for Christmas instead of Thanksgiving this year, we will be celebrating Turkey Day on our own.  As much as I will miss being around my family, I am kind of excited about cooking a Thanksgiving meal.  I think it's probably because I enjoy cooking and I love Thanksgiving food.

I went to Whole Foods a couple of days ago to order our bird.  I had no clue what I was doing, but I knew that I wanted to feed my family an organic turkey.  We are by no means health nuts around here, but I do know that my family's health is my responsibility.  I only buy organic dairy products and I try to buy only organic meat when I can.  Sure, it makes the grocery bill a little more expensive, but it's worth it to make up for all of the processed foods (namely chicken nuggets and mac 'n cheese) that my family consumes. 

So there I was at Whole Foods, fired up to order what felt like my very first Thanksgiving turkey.  I walked up to the counter, all smiles. 

"I'm here to order my turkey."

"Great!  What size do you need?" The nice, young salesman asked me.

"Small.  The smallest you've got." 

"How many pounds?" he asked.

"Pounds?  Pounds."  I stood there thinking.  I knew that there was some rule when it came to this.  Was it a pound a person?  I couldn't remember.  That seemed right, but sure sounded like a lot.  I was still thinking when he interrupted me.

"How many people are you wanting to feed with it?"

"Just four of us," I said.  And that was a stretch.  The Cheese and The Monkey would each eat a leg, leaving the rest of the bird for The Golfer and I.  I didn't figure they made a two pound turkey, but that was really all we needed.

"Well, if you want a partially cooked turkey, the smallest we have is ten pounds."

Partially cooked.  No defrosting, already cleaned, and no insides to remove sounded pretty good to me.  But ten pounds worth of meat would be way too much.

"How much is it?" I finally decided to ask.

"$5.99 a pound."

"A sixty dollar turkey?"  My decision was made for me.  "Yeah, I think we'll pass.  What are my other options?"

"The organic petit turkey is only six pounds and costs $3.99 a pound."

"Yeah.  Okay.  We'll go with that." 

Twenty-five dollars for a dead bird sure seemed like a lot, but being my first turkey purchase I honestly had no clue what they go for.  He could have totally ripped me off and I would have no clue. 

As we walked around the store, I began thinking about the other things that would be on my Thanksgiving menu.  Just because there are no gifts to buy doesn't mean that Thanksgiving is a cheap holiday.  It is only going to be the four of us eating and I'm going to spend the same amount on food for one day that we usually eat in a whole week.  I definitely have a whole new appreciation for my mother and grandmother and what they did every Thanksgiving--not only for all of the planning, shopping, and cooking that they did, but also for all of the money they spent feeding upwards of twenty people!   

I guess I know what I'm thankful for this year--that I only have four people to cook for!    

Find more stories and tips for the holidays at Family.com's Yule Blog