Traditions
This Thanksgiving I received a very generous offer from a family member to host the holiday. This offer should have been a gift, a break, an opportunity for me to have a holiday off, but instead my palms began to sweat and I felt a pit in my stomach as my heart sank at the thought of Thanksgiving not being in my home after a fifteen year tradition. I sat for a moment, quietly trying to sift through my racing thoughts, as my phone buzzed incessantly from my anxious children and other family members.
I never realized the importance of Thanksgiving in my home and the impact it had on my children and my entire family. My children panicked at the thought of their beloved mashed potatoes and day long cozy snuggles on the couch with family members being absent. I began thinking, there are so many things in life we don’t appreciate or realize their value until it is taken away. It’s a metaphor for life in many ways if you want to get deep about it.
Thanksgiving has always been a favorite holiday of mine, but I never gave it much thought as to why, or what Thanksgiving really means to me. There’s a comfort I gain from the warm apple cider gently bubbling on the stove and the delicious spicy scent that fills our home as guests arrive and dogs bark. Chaos ensues as everyone arrives with bags, trays and tupperware filled with their contributions to the meal.
We have our traditions as every other family like my repeated torching the marshmallows atop the sweet potatoes each year. (one year the casserole ended up in the snow, extinguishing the flames and cooling the dish.) Football games on all available televisions and shoes slipping off, settling in for the long day of lounging and eating.
Traditions over the years have developed into decorating the house with my children, learning various napkin folding techniques, gifts of chocolate turkeys for all the children, and of course an annual birthday cake to celebrate my sister‘s birthday which is within a few days of Thanksgiving. These memories make me love Thanksgiving. The days and hours of preparation bring me pure joy year after year. As I sat and reflected upon the memoires over the years, I realized that preparation for Thanksgiving is a ton of work, yet it’s always been joyous for me, never feeling like work at all.
My house becomes a home when filled with family and friends. Thanksgiving days of lazing around on comfy couches watching the games, eating and drinking for hours, create moments that impacted me more than I ever realized. Throughout the day, I catch glimpses of the children spending quality time with the adults, engaged in conversation and I remember back to Thanksgivings when they were little girls, making tea parties for our guests. This year it became apparent how important the traditions are to me and my children. Traditions we’ve created over the years, which have flown by so fast, that I didn’t even realize we were creating traditions, and things that my extended family relished. I can’t imagine Thanksgiving without my family or without these meaningful traditions we have created in my home over the years, sharing moments with the people we love,on a day that comes but once a year. I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope you and your family are making new memories worth cherishing.