To my followers, I took a few days off. Writing a blog five days a week is sometimes a daunting task. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.
Where’s the Turkey? And the Goose and the stuffing and the home-made cranberry sauce with orange peels? Where’s the love and the laughter? The happily sinking into the couch cushions with full bellies and tired brains to watch a dumb Christmas movie until we all fall asleep?
It was a different kind of holiday and I was looking for a “same kind of holiday.” That’s where you learn the lessons of life.
We were an hour late leaving the house. With some gas-guzzling driving, we made the time up, to some extent. But overall, we had little time to reconnect and address the idea that we should make some sense of this holiday. As we drove, Lex and I had quality time to find common ground, which was overpoweringly wonderful. Then we all fell into the “I’m Mom, he’s Dad and you are the Kid” mode. As we wander and stumble around this unknown landscape of life with adult children, it takes its toll on everyone. The roles are not well-defined and we must drop some of the well-worn habits of relating.
I drove, turned around, and drove again, from Temple to Portland to Temple. Watching the gas gauge and feeling the economy of my day. But at some point it didn’t matter what the gauges said, or where I was on the highway. I said, “Happy Thanksgiving!” to every toll-taker and wondered where their family was. I thought of who my family is. I caught up with my sister, who was here just a year ago, for a very different holiday. And I when I returned to the empty house, I simply reheated the Cornish Game Hen from the other night and said to myself, “What’s wrong right now? Everyone is right where they are supposed to be. There is nothing that any of us is lacking. The world will only give you what you need right now, and this is what you need to learn.”
I hope every one was able to see the beauty in their day, no matter what it looked like and to find the joy in the present.
Therapeutic Misadventures 
That wreath is FABULOUS!!!
Long ago, I stopped celebrating Thanksgiving in the traditional sense. I stopped cooking huge meals, stopped cleaning like a mad woman for 3 days before the family was due to arrive, in a word, I stopped stressing. I now let whatever is going to happen, happen. Sometimes we join friends, sometimes we have a quiet meal at home together and sometimes, like this year, we go away. As with every other day of the year, it is all in what you make it!
LikeLike
Good advice, Laura. I am learning to look at life with more calm and less stress about what I think “should be” and see it as it is.
LikeLike
I got to spend Thanksgiving alone in the woods, which is my favorite place to be, so it was a good one. I had invitations to go here and there but I’ve never had a problem being alone on holidays and I always choose to do what I feel like on Thanksgiving. I like having 4 whole days to do absolutely nothing, if that’s what I feel like. Christmas though-that’s a different story!
LikeLike
I’m quite glad we don’t do Thanksgiving here. It seems to me we have enough stress with Christmas and enough over eating then too. One more feast day and I’d never get my jeans back on 🙂
LikeLike
Ah but you have Boxing Day! When I lived in Trinidad I always looked forward to that day though I never did get a good answer as to how it came about.
LikeLike
I think, traditionally there were boxing matches.
LikeLike