Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is fast approaching but rather than gearing up for a whirlwind I've learned to appreciate and enjoy that less is more. Dinner will be the 3 of us. The turkey is already in the freezer (we've had years where our main course was Costco rotisserie chicken) awaiting its browning bag fate. I'll buy cranberries and green jello from the grocery store deli and roast vegetables. Our son will enjoy Tyson chicken nuggets from Costco (finally gone are the crisis years because Wendy's closes on Thanksgiving). I'm sure we'll take a long drive to occupy the time as has become our tradition.

We won't sit down to a table groaning with food surrounded by the chaos of family like in my previous life before I became my husband's wife and my son's mother. For the 1st 34 years of my life Thanksgiving was a Family Tradition. For 20 of those years my mother cooked for 20+ (she always made it look so easy but as a daughter in an Italian American family ~ my father of German descent thinks he's Italian ~ I always was by her side for the preparations) before it became too much and we then went to a local restaurant buffet for the next half dozen years. Every year family came in from out of state and it was a weekend long celebration. That was before we all grew up, grew older and those of us still living in our hometown either passed on or finally joined the others and moved away.

Before our son was born my husband and I spent a couple of potluck Thanksgivings with large gatherings of friends (one in our small apartment while living in Germany), one year we had a private beach picnic in Atlantic Beach, NC and the last we spent in San Antonio conceiving our son. We dreamed of hosting large gatherings of family and friends but the best laid schemes of mice and men...

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner this year. We have so much for which to give thanks. We  are together, healthy and relatively happy. Our son continues making amazing gains daily. On
Saturday I made our son shed a few tears when him playing with my hair just became too much and I told my son to go away. I hurt his feelings. Yesterday I asked my son where mine was as I unwrapped his candy so this morning during our commute without prompting he gave me 3 green apple jolly ranchers (the 1st was unwrapped and once licked; obviously not his favorite). I was reminded of how when growing up my mother used to split a roll of Necco wafers between me and my younger brother as long as we gave her the black ones.

I miss my extended family as we now are scattered all over the country but we'll call one another and this year maybe even FaceTime or Skype. The years of cousins washing Thanksgiving dishes together, clubbing Friday night and then watching Disco Beaver from Outer Space late Saturday night with my grandmother right in the middle of it all are long passed. However, I'm looking forward to the here and now of maybe cuddling with my husband and son in front of our fireplace and relaxing after a long ride and a Thanksgiving Dinner that was just right for us.