Thanksgiving Prep...

Thanksgiving is in two days!

Are you freaking out?

I am writing this post a few weeks ahead of time, so I have no idea how I am feeling today. However, I can guess some pretty common things may be going on in your household and/or mine.

If extended family is coming to your house this year, you may be scrambling to get the house cleaned for visitors. I feel like I always worry and fret over the state of my house when I have company coming, to the level of ridiculousness (heaven forbid they find out what we REALLY live like). And even after all my work and drill-sergeant-like-orders to my kids are done, the house is never good enough.

 Today may be the day that you do the last of your shopping and/or meal prep. I bet the grocery store is crazy today. I hope you were able to go WITHOUT your kids!

Or you may be packing for a trip to go see family for the holiday. In that case you are probably cleaning the house AND washing all the laundry AND cleaning out the car AND making arrangements for the pets to be taken care of AND packing…AND probably a lot more. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

I’ve had some very fun, enjoyable Thanksgivings in the past. I’ve also had a few that did not go quite as expected.

We typically spend Thanksgiving with relatives from my dad’s side of the family. Over the years we have missed a couple because of getting a cold or flu bug and not wanting to get my grandma sick, but those we have spent with other family that lives locally. Last year was our first Thanksgiving since she had passed, but we were still going to have it with my dad’s side of the family at my uncle’s house. Three days before, the flu hit our house.

Having a large family means that sicknesses take a while to work through us. Not everyone gets it at once, so the sickness is spread over a longer period of time. We were hoping that we would all be better, but I woke up Thanksgiving morning knowing that we were going to be spending the day at home. Two of the kids had still not gotten sick yet, and I would hate to have them get sick while visiting the family (and get the family all sick). So I decided that I, for the first time ever, was going to make a complete Thanksgiving dinner for my little family of six.

I drove into our little town, to the only store that was open, and got the very last bag of potatoes and the very last turkey breast. I looked up the recipes on my phone and made everything for the meal from scratch (including the cranberry sauce).

It was fun. I almost felt like a little girl playing house. It wasn’t just cooking things that I had never made before, it was the joy of preparing something extra special for my family that was seeped in the tradition that the women of my family (and my country) had been preparing for generations. Know what I mean?

Because that’s what Thanksgiving is all about. Taking a day to be THANKFUL for all that we have been giving.

It’s not about having a clean house (and yelling at our kids until we get one *blush*).

It’s not about preparing the perfect foods (homemade or canned cranberry sauce, who cares?).

Whether you get to spend the holiday with a huge gathering of relatives or it’s just your nuclear family at home, it’s about FAMILY.

I’m going to read this blog two days before Thanksgiving this year and remind myself of this. I hope this reminder is a blessing to you, too, Mama. And I hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Lots of love,

Lee