This year Thanksgiving will be very different. Usually, the three kids and I are all together. I don’t think we’ve missed any years of being together until now. My son will be with his girlfriend and her family in the SF bay area (700 miles from me) and my daughter will be with her boyfriend and his family also in the SF bay area. My older daughter and I will be in our new homes in the Portland area. I was supposed to cook for the two of us and for my daughter’s friends but at the last minute she decided to come and get everything from me and take it to her apartment where she and her friend will do all the cooking. I just have to show up. Well, I am making an apple pie and candied yams at home then taking them to her apartment across town. I’m not sure which I would rather do, all the cooking or driving across town.
When she and her friend were here to pick up all the food so they could fix it tomorrow, I was thinking about how our traditions have changed to accommodate our changing family over the years. When I was growing up, we just had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, yams, rolls, and pumpkin pie. When I married my husband’s family had all the same things but added green beans, peas, olives, a second version of candied yams, coleslaw, corn, apple pie, and sometimes mince meat pie. When I divorced and the kids became pickier, we added macaroni and cheese to the mix. When my daughter was here, she kept pulling out more and more stuff from the pantry. I asked who was going to eat it and she said, “But we always have it.” True, but we normally have a couple of other people. So we cut a few things that that the three and possibly four of us won’t eat tomorrow. Still, we will have an awful lot of food.
This year we won’t have to fix a tofurkey (yes, you read that right; it’s a tofu turkey). My younger daughter is vegetarian so we usually have turkey and tofurkey. We usually have ham, too because my older daughter loves ham. We’re doing without this year. We’ll save it for Christmas dinner. And this year there aren’t any minors to drink the six bottles of Martinelli’s that I bought, forgetting we didn’t really need all that. I’m set for the next three Christmases and by then my youngest will be 21 and will drink wine with us.
I guess I’m feeling a bit down. I’m missing the two that won’t be with us. I think I’ll miss them even more tomorrow. I’m starting not to like being so far away from them. At least if the economy weren’t so bad, there’d be more money and they could fly up here for the holiday but not this year.
Who and what are YOU missing this holiday?
Happy Thanksgiving to you, Corina!
It is good to have one day in a year designated for the expression of gratefulness. We do not have one here in Malaysia. So wise of Abraham Lincoln!
The world would be less chaotic, it would be a more peaceful place if each one of us has the awareness in him that there are plenty for which he should be thankful for.
To remind myself of my good fortune, I have drawn up a list for my daily expression of giving thanks. I have an equally long list of things to be thankful for.
http://novice101.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/now-is-as-good-a-time-as-any-for-thankfulness
Hope your ‘low’ mood has evaporated. If it hasn’t make a mental switch.
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well you just go and allow yourself to be the guest.. have a day of pampering and enjoy the company of your family and friends…
happy thanksgiving corina….
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I thought of you this morning when I saw the sunny day, and hoped it would stay that way for your first Thanksgiving here. Looks like my wish won’t come true, unfortunately.
I think it’s nice that your daughter and her friend want to take on the hard part of the cooking. And I know your two kids far away will be thinking of you, just as you are thinking of them. And I’ll be thinking of you, too. *hugs*
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Thank you, Jodi. I hope you have a good, quiet day.
Thanks David! I was thinking of you and wondering if you were going out to eat with your mom this year.
It looks like yet another modification. I usually make a fresh apple pie with a graham cracker crust. My daughter took the wrong pie crust with her last night. She took the one I was going to use and left the chocolate one. I don’t think apple pie will be good with a chocolate crust. I ended up turning it into a kind of apple cobbler, no crust. We’ll see how this goes over.
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