So I decided to be grateful, truly grateful that I have a family. I may not always get along with my sibs, but I love each and every one. Even if one of them is the polar opposite of me, politically. He is my little brother (age 50), and is genetically my "full" brother. We lost our mother to breast cancer when I was six and he was six months old. We have always been close - until W and The Rogue. My other sister and brother are "half" siblings, but we have never thought of ourselves as "half." We are whole in so many ways.
Thanksgiving is the time that is reserved mostly for the four of us and our families. All other get-togethers usually include friends and extended family. I find it is a good time for us. We talk with each other, revel in our children, laugh, heal our wounds. We have one rule in our family and that is that everyone is invited to Thanksgiving. Our family doesn't leave anyone out, no matter how obnoxious they have been during the year. Hurts and misunderstandings heal over turkey and stuffing, we have found.
So I will cook all day, make sure the house is beautiful for my little girl, who arrives tomorrow. Fresh flowers in her bathroom and bedroom. I will hug and kiss my nieces and nephews and play with their children. I will cook like crazy, loving every minute of it, then try to finagle some time with my daughter when her friends start to call. I will be grateful for this moment in time. No one is sick, we have enough food, shelter, and plenty of love. Life is good.
What are your plans? I hope you have a wonderful day, and for my international friends - hope you have a great day, too, even if you aren't stuffing yourself!
39 comments:
Have a wonderful day with your family Nancy. I'm looking forward to cooking with my son.
I want to come to YOUR THANKSGIVING!
i hope you have a wonderful holiday with your family. you are my last read before we hit the road...and arrive at grampa's house later this evening. fun with fam in store.
and thank you for your words, always.
Hope you have a great Thanksgiving with your family! I'll be spending it with loved ones too. :) I'm on mashed tater duty so I'm making my world famous cheddar cheese mashed potatoes. :)
Have a happy Thanksgiving with your family. This has been a tough year and one of the few times in my life that we weren't surrounded by family as crazy as we all are when we get together. Your post helped me to realize how I always took that for granted.
Oh, have LOTS of fun, Nancy!xx♥
Thoughtful post, Nancy. & it's good to be reminded just how much we all have to be grateful for!
Sounds like you have a funtastic day planned. I'm going to the beach house. DD is in NY City with other college friends. So, it's the three of us and a few of the purr gang.
enjoy your thanksgiving :)
here in the uk, we don't acknowledge the day but i have been taking the day to think about gratitude in the most unexpected places.
Happy Thanksgiving Nancy.
Ellen - Enjoy!
Jeninacide - We will miss you more than you know.
Brian - Be safe Brian, and have a wonderful holiday.
Meeko - Those taters sound wonderful. I'm doing Ina Garten's Smashed Parmesan Potatoes. Yum.
dragonfly - I've missed you! Hope your day is a good one.
Natalie - Thank you.
Trish & Rob - Enjoy your little girl home and in her room!
JC - Say hello to the beach for me and enjoy your day!
sas - We sure don't need a special day to that, do we?
Good Cook - Thanks for the recipes - enjoy!
You captured the spirit beautifully. Happy Thanksgiving.
Oh Nancy, underneath the cheer you express the anxiety many of us are feeling this year. I will be spending the day quietly with my husband, and will call my siblings and listen to their lives, and then turn around look at the incredibly beautiful place we call home. Happy Thanksgiving to you, dear friend.
Cookin' up a storm in Cajun Country! Have a fun and Happy Thanksgiving!
I think I'll stuff myself in solidarity, does that work? :)
Happy Thanksgiving Nancy! Gratitude comes from the knowledge that we can only change what is in our control. Have a great dinner, I love your centerpiece!
xx
what a beautiful, rich post...thank you for sharing some of your tradition, it is a wonderful one to have everyone at the Thanksgiving table no matter what...period...
I like that and am pondering it very carefully actually...
blessings to you and yours...
Nancy, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
You hit it on the nail. This is what we do with those we love and yet to be reminded of being grateful for all that we have. I did the same thing this morning and have done it all day long. I am feeling very grateful for so much abundance. Hope you enjoy your girl and all that will enter your home. Blessings to you and yours. Happy Thanksgiving! XX Lori
Nancy, have a wonderful day! Your table looks beautiful!
Happy Thanksgiving!
xxO
Kelly
Have a wonderul time with all of your family Nancy. It was refreshing to read of the love you have for your family....warts n'all! Happy Thanksgiving!
And by the way, thanks for mentioning my post to Hilary and for your very kind words.
This post made me smile so much. I have a "full" and three "halves"...we are all different, but come together in solidarity, too. Blessings to you all.
Happy Thanksgiving. I am making a sweet potato dish, with vanilla, coconut, pecans.....ooh, I think I like it better than the turkey.
Blessings to you and your family. A lot can happen in a year and I count my blessings too.
A happy feast to you and your family.
Have a wonderful day with your family, Nancy. Happy Thanksgiving. :)
Nancy, I enjoyed this post. Your talk of the strains of family, yet still gathering. Why is that family can bring these troubles? Seems like it shouldn't be that way. I understand them.
Enjoy the time with you daughter and all the family. We are celebrating with friends. Friends who are our family without all the gunk.
lakeviewer - Happy Thanksgiving!
DJan - Have a wonderful day!
Marguerite - Thanks for recipes - I know you will be having fun - Cajun style!
Rain - Thank you, I really liked that one too. Have a piece of pie at least! :-)
linda - It has always worked for us.
Pam - Thank you - same to you!
smiles - We really do have to remind ourselves sometimes, don't we. Have a great day.
Chic - Thanks, Kelly, you too!
Bogey - Oh yeah, we have plenty of warts (smile.) Your post was wonderful - it really was.
Mental - It's the only way, really. Have a great day.
Melissa - That dish sounds heavenly! Blessings to you, too.
ds - Thank you! Same to you.
Hilary - Thank you. Have I told you lately how much I enjoy your POTW? Thanks for doing it!
Midlife - Have a great day. Family can certainly be friends. Sometimes we have to find our family, don't we?
So sad thinking of the loss you and your brother endured when children. I absolutely understand what you said about being close until W. That/he is what split us from my husband's family and it hasn't really healed. We won't be with them for Thanksgiving, although invited and only 40 miles away. We're sticking to our recent-years tradition of going to Silver Falls Conference Center for Thanksgiving dinner. I'll be up in the woods in a rustic setting with lots of strangers, and I couldn't be happier!
Your plans sound beautiful and I'm sure you will make it a beautiful day.
A beautiful post, Nancy. We do have a lot to be thankful for, don't we? Have a wonderfully happy Thanksgiving Day.
Oh, I do hope you have a fabulous day! smiles.
Nancy, it sounds perfect. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family.
Cheers!
Jo
Oh, Nancy...you are so right!!! We do have so much to be thankful for!!! And I, for one, am thankful for YOU!! Hope you had a wonderful day with your loved ones!!! Happy Thanksgiving! ~Janine XO
Our plans were to try to make the day as nice and special as possible in light of our current situation. It was nice, though when we all said what we were grateful for it appeared to be "glad we are all healthy" for eveyrone, LOL Well at least there's that!
Family is family, no matter how obnoxious! As I've gotten older, I try to laugh at the stuff that used to bother me. Mostly I hope I don't drive my teenager crazy when he is grown and I am old. And I hope he will look forward to coming home.
Gratitude is my attitude of choice ... whenever I can remember just how lucky I am, it casts everything, even problems, in the right light.
I am thankful that you are part of my life, very much so. Happy Thanksgiving, nancy!
wonderful post nancy - one which has such meaning for us all - hope your family time was all you wanted it to be!
Hope your Thanksgiving was simply perfect...filled with love and loved ones...you give so much to all of us!! You deserve a very special holiday! Much love, Janine XO
I hope you had a wonderful holiday! Ours was celebrated with friends. There was good food, laughter and music.
Oh, it all sounds so lovely. I hope your holiday was all that you hoped it would me, I know mine was. I'm tired but in a good way. Much love, Elizabeth.
Wow, I am way late. Sorry:(
I hope that you had a great holiday!
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