Thanksgiving Week

Light blogging this week….My middle son is home from Manhattan for the week, cousins are coming in from Florida. We’ll have a full house.

I love Thanksgiving. When we sit down to our meal, all the children and grandchildren (save, this year, our oldest granddaughter, who lives in England) will gather around the table. My sister and her husband, their two sons and their partners (and this year, one of their partner’s parents!) will all make a big, noisy crowd. They’ll be joined by a couple of friends, the aforementioned cousins….There’ll be lots of people, lots of food, lots of laughs, and lots of hugs.

We have our traditions: after we finish eating, I turn into what my children call “the gratitude Nazi.” We go around the table, and I make everyone share what he or she is most grateful for. Only then can the guys split for the big screen TV and whatever football game is being played.

A more recent tradition: we have our Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday rather than Thursday. That makes it easier for family members coming from the coasts and for those with competing family obligations. It’s more fattening, but it works pretty well.

I hope those of you reading this have a wonderful holiday. Count your blessings, kiss your kids, relax a bit. Draw a sigh of relief that the election is over, and try not to think about the odds that the most recent blow-up in the Middle East will start World War III.

See you after the break.