Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Not that my family celebrates a lot of holidays, but it's still my favorite by far. I think I appreciate the spirit of the holiday, the family time together, the way everyone sort of unwinds and is just happy to have the day with each other. We don't do other projects during the holiday, we just try to spend as much time together on that day together, doing things everyone wants to do, working to make each other happy.

This Thanksgiving was especially dear to me because I was away from the family core last year (ie my parents), and I'm fairly certain I will be away again this next year. Last year was a fabulous alternative, since I got to have a different family thanksgiving with my brother's family and my sister. But Thanksgiving is not only MY favorite holiday, it's also my Mom's favorite holiday. And the ability to spend it with her, is a blessing. Next year I hope to be in Maine, and I have no idea if there is enough of a break for me to afford the flight home for the holiday. I will be entirely on my own next year, and though I am  sure I will find friends, church family, etc, it will still not be the same without my mother. And the rest of the family too.

It's not that we do anything special. Much of the late morning was spent in Wii bowling tournaments (I mean, that's still rather novel to my family, video gaming systems and all), after that we did a lot of cooking. This was the first time in three years I got to A. help cook, and B. could eat everything. My mother worked hard to make it an entirely gluten-free meal, and that was really meaningful to me, since it was the first time in three years I had had a full Thanksgiving meal. None of the food is anything incredibly gourmet, lots of traditional favorites; turkey, dressing, my mom's potatoes, you get the idea: not a lot of adventurousness. But that is what makes it so special. We don't make a dressing except once a year, and it's an incredible recipe, so we savour it when we have it. I don't mean the food isn't incredibly tasty by saying it's not gourmet or adventurous, I just mean, we're fairly run of the mill on the menu choices.

Much of our afternoon and evening after we ate our early dinner feast was spent again playing Wii (need to work off those calories) and then wonderful board games, wrapped up by movie watching (Clue!). It's not the activities, the games, or the movie choices that make it special though, it's one full day of everyone checking their stress at the kitchen door, enjoying great foods together, working together (we figured out that every single dish in the kitchen was a collaboration of some sort), and just being silly. More threats to spew drinks because of raucous laughter happen on this day than on any other day of the year. Me? I like watching them,  I enjoy the sense of love that hangs in the air. Sometimes the idea that stress isn't necessary for a few short days while we play, laugh and enjoy each other even lasts as long as the leftovers. Sometimes it doesn't last as long as the leftovers, but we're a real family, with all the failures and mistakes that go along with it. Maybe that sounds cheesy, but I really don't mean it that way.

This year, above all else, I'm thankful for my family. I'm thankful to be home, to have a home, to have emotional shelter from the rest of the big, bad, ugly world, to know I always have a place, emotional if not physical, to return to. I'm so incredibly blessed I'm ready to tear up right now, and I'm not a crier.
God said he would never leave us alone, and yes, I know that He meant He was sending the Holy Spirit, but I think God works through means, and I see family as one of his incredible means of communicating His love for us.