Each year we gather our families together to celebrate Thanksgiving day. This occasionally includes my parents, yet this year they were at the coast celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. All our guests this year were from my husband's side of the family: his cousins, a cousin's mother, brother, sister-in-law, nephews, and a niece. We prepared a 20-pound turkey for our party of 18. As Hannah gets older, she is more involved and excited by making holidays special. This year she created the decorations. My husband and I prepared some edible staples (turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing) and left to the rest to our visitors. It was a festive comfortable gathering. I am so thankful to have this one day to assemble everyone under one roof. It is easy to leave family drama behind with my straight-shooting in-laws. Or maybe I don't see much drama because I know it isn't mine.
Each year we come together over our Thanksgiving meal in different ways. Last year we went to my brother-in-law's home with our seven-week old-son. This year my baby boy is running instead of sleeping. We have lost a member and welcomed three new baby boys into our family circle. A cousin's father has sadly passed on after a long battle with cancer. Our health continues to change as we grow older.
In trying to cherish and preserve this sacred time together, I wish for so many rituals yet to be practiced. I want us all to gather together, to sit down and eat at one long table, and for us each to give express our gratitude for any part of our lives. I'd also love to roast a few organic chickens in a variety of ways in place of a general turkey. I fantasize about getting a tablecloth everyone can sign year and year and embroidering over the signatures to show the history of our group. Change is inevitable, yet it doesn't always happen quickly when we want it to. Often times changes happen too quickly. For now, I shall be content to spend the next year dreaming up activities to help us share our gratitude with one another. I am thankful to have this family with which to share this sacred day.
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| We decorated our Thanksgiving tree with 20 of our favorite little turkeys. |
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| foam+ googly eyes+ a bottle of white glue= one of our favorite turkey day decorations |
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| acrostic poems with our guests' names |
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an awesome book I found after Thanksgiving
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| a thankfulness tree we may try out next year |
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