Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays, and I look forward to it every year. We alternate spending Thanksgiving with my family and my husband's family. My brother-in-law and his wife host DH's extended family every other year (they have the same rotation that we do), and my sister-in-law is super organized and a great cook. Everyone brings something - most are assigned a dessert, or appetizer, or beverages. Our assignment? We bring the turkey. I thought this would be really tough the first year we did it, but we've got it down now, and it gets rave reviews every time. Never did I dream I would cook a bird that I then had to transport 45 minutes, keeping him hot along the way. But I digress. This year it was my family's turn, so no turkey transport this year.
My DH works seven on, seven off nights, which means that he is off every other week. There are no holidays off due to the nature of his work. This year, unfortunately, he was on for Thanksgiving, which meant that he wasn't able to join us to celebrate Thanksgiving at my aunt's house, an hour and a half from our home. Usually Thanksgiving weekend is a simple thing. We go to the home of the family member hosting, hang out, each too much, watch football or maybe It's a Wonderful Life and drive home and spend the rest of the weekend recovering and getting stuff done around our house and yard. This year was much more involved than that.
DD turned two last week, and my in-laws insisted on coming up for her birthday, despite the fact that we didn't want to have a party this year because of crazy schedules and the holiday. Not one to give them their way without being a little bit of a brat, I declared that fair is fair and invited my parents up as well. My BIL and niece joined us as well. My mom made a cake (thank you! It was a big help, and very tasty!), and she also made my kitchen smell delicious by baking pies for the next day while I cleaned up my house before the rest of our visitors arrived. We are not capable of having only one thing go on at a time, so of course we were also awaiting the delivery of a new freezer for the garage. Which arrived damaged. Which reminds me that I need to make sure we follow up with the place we bought it from. (Adding to my to-do list. Okay, done.) Visitors arrived, freezer arrived, we went out to dinner, I didn't kill anyone, it was a successful visit. We all went to bed tired.
Thursday, I had our two year old solo for the trip to my aunt's house, which is usually no big deal. This year, however, as soon as we got there, she looked at me and said, "Tummy huwts" and tossed her cookies. Poor baby. She then proceeded to get sick a couple more times and was just generally under the weather. Fortunately, we had extra clothes because we were spending the night at my parents house. My overpacking tendency definitely came in handy. DD perked up after almost everyone had left and started eating almost everything she could get her hands on.
We were able to sleep in on Friday (thank goodness!) and then we headed to the city for the nhl game that we had tickets for. After the game we got dinner at the diner and then headed home to
I thought I was in the clear, but Sunday night I was stricken with the bug that hit DD on Thanksgiving day. I haven't been that sick in a very long time. I would have had this post up earlier, but I slept through Monday and couldn't look at the computer on Tuesday. Much better today.
Even with the marathon that was this holiday weekend, Thanksgiving is still one of my favorite holidays. It isn't like it used to be, when I was younger and didn't have a kid. I don't always get to talk to everyone that I want to, but they understand. I know that.
I am thankful that I have my family. I'm thankful that we are, for the most part, healthy. I'm thankful that I get to see my family on holidays. While it's no fun when my husband has to work on holidays, I'm thankful that he has a job. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. I have a lot to be thankful for. I hope that you do too, and that you had a Happy Thanksgiving spent with those near and dear to you.
Now the holiday season has begun, it doesn't slow down until after the new year. Let the craziness begin!
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