Thanksgiving Musings

I used to dress up to cook Thanksgiving dinner...I'd wear a long skirt and a huge apron I made out of an old bed sheet.  Eventually, I stopped, because it was just too hot.  Once I got involved with theater, my need to dress up was fulfilled without doing that. 

We have juggled family obligations at Thanksgiving for years now.  That's the price of blended families.  Chandra would have to go to her stepsister's with SSS and Charyl.  Vanessa would go to Mike's parents...Brendan would have Grandma's and his stepmom's.  I would try and fit a dinner in there somewhere, but there were many years when Thanksgiving dinner was on the weekend, and not Thanksgiving Day.

This year, Brendan is in Chicago with Emmy's family, and the rest of us are at Vanessa's.  The SSSs, the Toungates, the Grishams, the Blevins and the Lunas must all get along without any of my kids this year.  Mike has taken Ethan to his folks...but they will be back in time to eat with us.

I hope my kids understand that all that jugglement was a sacrifice, just like all those Christmases I woke up alone.  I let the girls go to SSS for Christmas in order to avoid their being pulled this way and that.  I hope they don't think that I didn't want to spend Christmas with them...

My family had a tradition of bring home strays for Thanksgiving.  I have never done that...just random strangers...makes me a bit nervous.  I've invited a friend, today, and Chandra has, too, so we should be a convivial bunch.

The turkey is stuffed and roasting, and all the sides are ready to go.  Chandra made cranberry sauce.  There's a lime pie, some Hawaiian bread that Frank baked, and snickerdoodles.  Skipping pumpkin pie is all good.  We'll have that at Christmas.

So we are having a very low-key and mellow holiday this year, with good food and good company.

I hope you are doing something similar.