Thanksgiving is a couple of days away and I'm having a hard time getting excited about it. We have moved our Thanksgiving to Friday to accommodate those with significant others, but it may be that none of them come. We haven't decided how we are going to spend Thanksgiving Day I hear McDonalds and Pizza Hut are open. :-(
It would be really nice if I had the energy to pull together something really fun, but I'm kind of feeling numb about holidays. I guess it is because there is this fantasy out there that everyone else has great holidays except for us. Now I am smart enough to realize that lots of families have bad holidays -- but sometimes holidays just make me wish for something "normal" -- you know, the family with two kids who both love their parents and bring home spouses for the holidays who like their parents too and we all have a lovely time.
Guess I have some work to do to get to a thankful Thanksgiving, huh?
8 comments:
I hope you find a nugget of joy (or the perfect topping for a pizza LOL) because you bring a lot of joy and hope to others.
You know that fantasy about the two kids who bring perfect grandkids to Thanksgiving dinner? That doesn't happen. They move across the country and you see them maybe once every three years.
Yeah, Amy I get that. But I'd rather have them move across the country and not see them, than know that we were only 90 miles away and decide they didn't feel like coming...
I certainly empathize. We're having ours on December 4th!
Just thinking of ways to make Thanksgiving day fun: how about watching the History channel special about the REAL first Thanksgiving, and eating some fish chowder and corn bread? For those of you at home, it might be kind of interesting to think about the experience of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags ...
I'm still waiting for one of mine to do his usual "back out at the last minute" routine.
However, we are doing family TG on Thursday and extended family TG on Saturday (including out of town relatives) so I expect to see all of them but the one in TX at some point in there.
How about doing two Thanksgivings anyway? do you have a college nearby with international students? (or other students who can't get home for the holidays?)
We have always really enjoyed inviting others to share the holiday with us - in fact, I regularly wish we did TG at our house instead of the in-laws' bcz I'm limited on how many other people I can impose on them - my own family is already in double digits with significant others and grandkids!
We have friends here where the wife comes from a huge family, and they have chosen to make their TG day tradition going to a church ~ an hour away and eating turkey there, as they serve on TG day. Different, but interesting tradition and they've been doing it for years.
Or how about serving at a homeless shelter?
I think I'd tend to be fixated on not having the perfect day - especially changing my plans, then having others drop out - I'm a planner, too and I HATE when other people change their minds last minute when I've tried to accommodate them - but maybe you can create a new, different, meaningful family tradition out of all this.
Good luck. :-)
We always did Meals on Wheels Thanksgiving morning (except for the cooks). And Thanksgiving always including anyone any of us knew that were going to be alone. Since your older kids are not making your spirit sing, why not start some new traditions with the ones still at home?
My former roommate spends every Thanksgiving volunteering at a homeless shelter serving food to them.
Sometimes joy is bubbly and warm and excited. Sometimes joy is not fun at all. Sometimes thankful is very different than joy. Sometimes thankful is just knowing that you have put love into a person that otherwise would not have experienced it. Even if that person does not appreciate it at any given time or even ever, the love was still given. Having raised some who have made choices that hurt and sadden me, I sometimes can only manage being thankful that I know I did my best, and that somewhere deep inside their lives were [maybe even still are] better for the love I gave. -sigh- Hard isn't it? ! It helps me, hope maybe it helps you a bit.
Gail Underwood Parker
www.upbeatsanddownbeats.blogspot.com
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