I realize this makes me insane.

On Wednesday, the Husband and I will lose our minds and decide to leave town along with thousands of other people who have also made that same decision.

Together, with our new found thousands of friends, we'll sit on the 91 freeway for eight hours to drive a total of six miles. Sometime Friday, we'll all reach our destination. Tired, crabby, and hungry.

Okay, I exaggerate. But not by much.

We're heading north-ish to my sister's for Thanksgiving and it will take us nearly double the normal amount of time.

My responsibilities this year include booze and desserts. My two favorite things.

The booze was easy. Say hello to our good friend Two Buck Chuck.

The desserts on the other hand... well, I think I went a little insane. Unless you think six pies and a chocolate mousse are not enough for fourteen people? If each pie cuts eight slices and everyone eats an equal amount, that's 3.42 slices per person. Hmm. Should I make it eight? I kid!

On the menu? Two pumpkin pies (necessary), two apple pies (a must), a pecan pie (does anyone even eat pecan?) and a caramel pecan pumpkin pie that sounded too interesting to pass up.

And I'm afraid this is the moment you'll realize how insane I actually am because I decided to prepare the dry ingredients ahead of time. See, I'm working today, on a Sunday of all days, and we're leaving from my office on Wednesday. I want to be prepared, damn it.

(Can we just pause for a moment to appreciate the beauty of all these different spices?)

I was seriously debating whether or not to share the following photos. Please don't mock me.

After all the dry ingredients were mixed, I bagged them up into very specifically labeled Ziploc bags. Those above are for the two apple pies alone. Two small bags contain the cinnamon/sugar mixture that will do a dance with the apples, two more contain the flour and brown sugar for the crumb topping, and three bags contain the ingredients to make six pie crusts.

Then all the ingredients for each pie went into a larger Ziploc bag, minus the perishables which will remain in the fridge until we leave and pack them in a cooler. All I'll have to do when I get there is mix the dry with the wet and bake. Oh, and roll out pie crusts, which is something I detest, so I'll have to talk one of the many persons younger than me into doing it instead.

Maybe this level of organization would send some people running for the hills, but I just saved myself a good two hours that can be spent doing better things. Like, hello!! Eating? It's Thanksgiving for crying out loud!