A Simple Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving! The time of year when everyone is running around trying to get it all done. When I was in college I always flew home for Thanksgiving the Tuesday or Wednesday before. This was fun because I would usually see someone I knew from high school flying in to our home town and it just felt like everyone was trying to get home for the holidays.
When I got married we decided we would switch and every other year we would spend with each of our families. In 2002 we went down to see my family for Thanksgiving and then 2003 we hosted it at our home, my sister-in-law made the turkey since I had not learned how to do that quite yet. In 2004 we were back with my family with our two month old son. By 2005 we were in a totally different place. Ben was in Germany, I was in Kentucky and I spent the day with a friend.
In 2006 I was in Germany and spent the next four Thanksgivings over there. I learned how to make my own turkey, which was a fun and silly experience. Some years my husband was deployed and we spent it with friends. Other years it was our little family. Those years we had a simple Thanksgiving. In 2008 we had Thanksgiving a week early because he was going to deploy on Thanksgiving day, thanks Army.
We moved back to the US and for a few of the years since we have gotten together with friends. Other years I made a simple Thanksgiving dinner for my little family. That is what I plan to do this year as well.
How do I have a simple Thanksgiving?
I buy a smaller sized turkey, I only make what I know we will eat, sorry no cranberry sauce here none of us want it. I am not a big cook, most nights I really don’t like to cook but I do enjoy cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family. There is no stress because I don’t have to worry about cooking the perfect meal. I just make what is going to work for us. I put the turkey in when I want to, we snack if we get hungry and then we eat when it is done.
I see people rushing, heading off to see family, planning big get-together and I admit, I get a little jealous about that. I would love to spend a Thanksgiving in California again, doing what I did growing up, being with my family, enjoy time with friends I don’t get to see very often. However, it just wasn’t possible for us to do that this year. This year we are going to have a simple Thanksgiving and that is okay. It can be a time to relax a bit with my boys, remember what we are thankful for and eat a good meal.
I know that in the future Thanksgiving will become busy again, especially once we move back to the West Coast. We will have family to visit, bigger meals to cook, more things to. So when I start to feel sad that I miss too many people over Thanksgiving, or sad that we are not spending it in a crazy mix of family fun, I remember that in the future, when this holiday becomes more stressful, I will look back to these simple Thanksgivings with fond memories.
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