Thanksgiving 2009

In Culture, Family, Holidays & Traditions on 27 November 2009 with no comments

Thanksgiving.

I com­plain every year about Thanksgiving, because I grew up cel­e­brat­ing the hol­i­day with extended fam­ily: sib­lings, aunts, cousins, friends, and tables of food. But ever since I left home, Thanksgiving has just been me and my hus­band, and then as our kids came along, our kids.

That’s just four peo­ple. When you grew up cel­e­brat­ing with dozens, four is a pretty lonely number.

Three days before Thanksgiving, I found myself stand­ing in line at the gro­cery store. The cashier asked me if we were going to visit fam­ily, or if we were host­ing din­ner at our house. “Oh,” I replied, “it’ll just be the four of us this year. It’s kind of lonely.”

The cashier looked at me with brown doe eyes and shrugged one bony shoul­der. “Hey,” she said, “at least you’re not alone.”

I’ll never be ungrate­ful for just the four of us again.

We pulled our fam­ily Secret Santas out of a hat after din­ner last night. Today—or pos­si­bly tomorrow—we’ll watch Elf and dec­o­rate the Christmas tree. We will not be join­ing the hordes of shop­pers fight­ing to spend money they don’t have on crap they don’t need. We’ll be holed up together in our lit­tle house, play­ing video games and nosh­ing on leftovers.

The four of us. Just the way we like it.

Wishing every­one a won­der­ful hol­i­day season.

Be sure to read: The Dance Party on Jefferson Avenue to get your post-Thanksgiving grin on. This guy is genius. Want to be him when I grow up.

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