Happy Holidays!
Thanksgiving in Echo Canyon never arrives all at once. It builds slowly, one small kitchen disaster at a time. Riley destroying the first three pies. Val hunting for cranberries in a store that ran out. Skylar and Shikáni covering half the kitchen in flour. Quinn trying to wrangle Cameron and Channing in the wine aisle. All of it ordinary. All of it theirs.
What I love about this week is how simple it is. Every character preparing in their own way, making messes, magic, and showing up at Raven’s house with food, laughter, and a little chaos. One of those rare weeks where nothing dramatic needs to happen for a story to feel full.
This is the whole arc. A celebration of the people who have become family, even the ones who arrived by accident.
Here is the full story.
1️⃣ Riley’s Pie Disaster
Riley decided she would make the pumpkin pies this year. It seemed simple. Flour. Spice. A recipe Sam swore by. What she forgot was that every oven she had ever used ran colder than the one in her Echo Canyon kitchen.
The first pie puffed too high. The second spilled over. The third baked unevenly. By the fourth, Riley leaned against the counter, laughing so hard she had to hold her side. Ben walked over from next door after hearing the smoke alarm chirp.
He took one look at the row of lopsided pies and the scorch mark on the bottom rack.
“You need help,” he said.
“I do not,” Riley insisted.
Her fifth pie came out perfectly.
Ben said it was because she finally let him turn down the oven.
Riley said it was because she refused to be defeated by dessert.
Either way, the house smelled like Thanksgiving.
2️⃣ Val and the Missing Cranberries
Val started the morning the way she always did before a holiday. A list on the counter. Ingredients lined up like soldiers. A quiet confidence that came from decades of knowing how to pull a meal together even when everything else in life felt unpredictable.
She was halfway through rinsing sage leaves when she stopped.
Cranberries.
Not in the bowl.
Not in the tote.
Not anywhere.
She checked the pantry twice.
Opened the tote again even though she had already looked.
Stepped outside and checked the truck bed as if the universe might have tucked the bag under a tarp just to be kind.
Nothing.
She sat in the driver’s seat for a moment before turning the key. Holidays had a way of reminding her that she was the one who kept traditions alive now. No one else.
At the small market outside the canyon, the cranberry shelf looked like a battlefield someone else had won. Empty.
Sam stood in line with flour and yams. He saw her face and held up a bag.
“You are not going to like this,” he said.
“What?”
“I bought the last two.”
Val crossed her arms.
Sam handed one over without a comment, just a soft smile she pretended not to notice.
Back home, she tipped the berries into the pot. The kitchen filled with their bright popping.
For a moment, standing there alone in the warm, sweet air, Val felt something settle.
The day had not gone the way she planned.
But the sauce would be perfect.
And that counted for something.
And she’d remember to thank Sam.
3️⃣ Skylar and Shikáni Make a Mess
Skylar offered to bring bread and stuffing. Shikáni insisted on helping. It should have been simple. It never was.
Shikáni chopped vegetables with the precision of a surgeon. Skylar measured nothing.
Shikáni followed a recipe. Skylar “felt it out.”
Halfway through, flour covered the table, the cat, and most of Skylar’s sweater. Shikáni had sage in her hair.
But there was laughter. Big, belly-deep laughter. The kind that only shows up when two women who adore each other attempt to cook from completely different worlds.
When the bread finally came out of the oven, warm and golden, Skylar tore off a piece and handed it to Shikáni.
“We did this,” she said.
Shikáni nodded. “Even though you refused to measure.”
Skylar bumped her shoulder. “Some things do not need measuring.”
The kitchen smelled like home.
The mess could wait.
4️⃣ Quinn, Cameron and Channing - Do the Impossible
Quinn had one job. Bring the wine.
Cameron and Channing insisted on tagging along.
The problem began when Cameron announced that they should “pair the wines properly.” The second problem arrived when Channing decided they needed something “fun,” which Quinn suspected meant sparkling with fruit in it.
The third problem was that Quinn did not actually like asking for help, but she was stuck with these two and their overflowing enthusiasm.
At the store, Cameron debated oak versus steel barrel. Channing announced she found “the cutest cider ever.” Quinn looked at her list and wondered why she had not gone alone.
In the end, they bought everything.
Quinn hated the chaos.
She loved the company.
Back in the canyon, she set the bottles on Raven’s counter.
Raven raised an eyebrow.
Quinn said, “Do not ask.”
Raven replied, “I was not going to.”
They both laughed. The good kind.
5️⃣ Thanksgiving at Raven’s House
Raven’s home filled slowly. First the smells. Then the voices. Then the warmth of people who have lived through enough years to know what gratitude feels like.
Ben brought Riley’s perfect fifth pie, but snuck in another - the best imperfect one of the four. Val carried her cranberry sauce in both hands like a fragile treasure. Skylar and Shikáni brought bread still warm from the oven. Quinn placed her towers of wine on the counter and shook her head at the memory of it.
Cameron and Channing helped set the table, arguing joyfully about which napkins were “festive enough.”
Sam checked on the turkeys in the smoker.
Raven watched everyone move through her home and felt it. This was family, even the ones who were not born into it.
They ate. They talked. They teased each other.
There was no formality.
Just a group of people who had made it through another year, sitting shoulder to shoulder.
When the plates were cleared, Raven looked at them and smiled.
She did not say it out loud, but the truth settled in her chest.
They had built a life here.
Together.
Closer.
Thanksgiving ended the way the best evenings do. The dishes stacked in the sink, chairs pulled close, and the kind of quiet that settles when people feel safe together.
Riley’s pie. Val’s sauce. Skylar’s bread. Quinn’s mountain of wine. All of it part of the same table. All of it a reminder that the older we get, the more grateful we become for the people who sit beside us at the end of the day.
This was one holiday in Echo Canyon. There will be others.
Thankful for my friend, Marylee on this Thanksgiving day! Seems like no matter how hard we try to get Thanksgiving just right something always goes haywire. Fortunately, in the end what we remember is the wonderful feeling of sharing a meal with loved ones. Have to say Riley has a lot of patience! I never would have made it to pie 5!
Perfect stories for Thanksgiving. Friends always make it perfect.