I was cutting out cranberry turkeys

From The Everywhere Girl Diaries – a work of fiction

Fourth week of November, year one

Dear Diary,

So last night, while I was cutting out cranberry turkeys, and Mom was making pumpkin pies, she casually mentioned the fact that they won’t be home for Christmas.  Apparently Harry entered some random contest and the entire family (sans yours truly) will be spending Christmas somewhere in Mexico helping build a school for impoverished children. At the end they’ll have a week in a luxury hotel in Mexico City. They’ll be gone over a month!  Dad is using all his banked vacation and Harry, Archie, Amantha, and Ruth have all been excused from school because of the educational nature of this adventure. The contest only covered a family of six so, even when they offered to pay my way; there wasn’t enough room for me to come too.

So now, they’re trying to decide what to do with me – board me at a kennel or pay the neighbor girl to feed, water, and walk me every day.

And these were the people who wanted me to stay home and go to a community college.