Thanksgiving, an American holiday where we eat ourselves into a stupor and sleep all afternoon. Well some of us anyway. Every year we get together with our families and eat and thanks God for all we have. For some of us this time of year is a chore. Some of us are forced to spend it with people we dont like to be around more than once a year. Some people dont have anyone to spend it with. Others spend it with loved ones that they havent seen in years and really enjoy seeing.
For years I have been spending the holidays with various people. When I was a kid I spent it with my parents. As I became a teenager and lived closer to family, we spent it at my grandparents. My grandparents and all my aunts and uncles and cousins would get together at their house and we'd eat and visit. It was usually a day I would somewhat look forward to. As I got older I started to notice things about my family and the day became less and less fun. (But thats a story for another time). Then I got married. My first husband and I spent it with his family and my family splitting the day in two. That became a huge chore. Sometimes we spent the day apart. Him with his family and me with mine. I got remarried about 5 years ago and of course the first question was "what are we doing for the holidays?" The first Christmas that Mike and I were together I took him to my Grandmas house for Christmas dinner. I distinctly remember the uneasy feeling I had taking Mike. It felt like everyone was thinking "why is she here with this guy when her divorce isnt even final yet?" (Mike is my soulmate and I felt like everyone could stuff it).
The next few years we went to my parents house, his parents house and sometimes his sisters house. Both our parents are divorced so that became more places to go. The things about going to other peoples houses is its never "home". If you dont like the food you have to eat it anyway or you look rude. You cant get comfortable because your wearing clothes that arent. Theres always the worry that your kids will start acting up.
This year I begged Mike to stay home and cook our own meal. Mikes dad and mom are divorced, as are mine, so its become potentially 5 places to go and I just didnt want to do that. Mikes mom has had health problems so this year is especially different. After talking about it we decided that we would stay home and cook our own turkey and all the things to go with it. The week before Thanksgiving I realized our bank account was really low and we didnt have much food. I was really concerned because Thanksgiving was before payday. I asked people to pray and my friend Katy came through. She had a friend at work who had a turkey and when I went to her house to get it she had all the things I would need for Thanksgiving dinner ready for me. It was so great.
Thanksgiving day came and Mike and I got up early and got the turkey into the oven. We were worried that it wouldn't turn out good. Late in the afternoon I heard the red button pop and it was time to get the turkey out and start carving. It was the best turkey. Moist, juicy and most important of all, hot. We had a small meal. Turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, corn, cheesecake, pound cake, cookies, pecan pie and apple pie. My sister in law brought down fudge as well. We ate and just sat around visiting. Since it was just us there wasn't much clean up which was nice. I think for our first time cooking it turned out wonderfully.
I know there's a lot to be said for spending time with family for the holidays but it was so nice to just be at home eating food that I like, in comfortable clothes, watching what we wanted. If I had my way we would do this every year. I don't know what next year will bring but I sure enjoyed this year.
