Thanksgiving by the Cards: Fantasy

[penthius]

The cards predicted a grim Thanksgiving dinner. There was Death, The Hanged Man, and the Mother. All of which were entirely predictable, given her relatives. The six of cups made her wonder if Uncle Tom would show up drunk again. But really, it was just the family. But her family was a bit different from most, and their alignment made all the difference in the world to the outcome for the person chosen as Reader and Guest, which this year was her boyfriend Mark, and so she had some hopes of figuring out which cards would attend and--she gave up there. People had tried to arrange the seating and the attendants differently before, but it only ended up with a freak tornado that deposited Aunt Bessie on top of the table and swapped three other relatives. When you were a living tarot deck, it didn't do to try and thwart the reading. They'd tried not gathering, the first year that the curse had been upon them, and that hadn't worked either. Between a bank robbery, a kidnapping, a work emergency, a freak flash flood, and a case of mistaken identity, the requisite number of family members had attended. Now they all tried to attend, and things tended to arrange themselves--

Inspiration: Bits from a discussion on my writing group's boards about writing prompts. One person linked to his writing prompt card deck, and another mentioned Norman Rockwell -> cards + Thanksgiving.
Story Potential: High.
Notes: This would take some thinking and working out, but it could be fun, and I haven't seen it done before. Also, LOTS of potential for ridiculous coincidences and mishaps a la Janet Evanovich.