Last year, I said that we would be on a cruise right now, enjoying Thanksgiving together as an anti-social couple. I was also supposed to win the lottery and/or Brian was supposed to invent an app that would make us bajillionaires. Neither came true, so we are at home this year.
It is not that I do not love family time, the hours of cooking or endless football on Thanksgiving. I swear it has nothing to do with the football…(Can someone please tell me why they have to play football on a holiday? Can’t it just stop already?).
I like Thanksgiving, really I do. I enjoy the one day a year that family puts aside their differences and pretends to get along. I love watching people count their non-material blessings hours before heading out to the stores to trample others and spend money buying what they claimed they didn’t need. The feasts are all abundant, much like the complaining the following day on how much people ate, how they will need to work it off (but won’t)…really, it’s all enjoyable. ‘Tis the beginning of the season.
The reason why I was going to be anti-social was because despite my love for Thanksgiving, it is a love I feel is truly shared by the minority but attempted by all. It seems as though as a society we are getting it backwards. The love, hope, faith, compassion for others, happiness, gratefulness, etc. that we experience on holidays lasts as long as the day itself, and then the rest of the year it is as though we are free to be greedy, rude, selfish and that is excused as normal. It reminds me of going to church and shaking peoples’ hands and wishing them that peace be with them, but then fighting with the same people 30 minutes later to get out of the parking lot.
So this year I thought why not try something different? Maybe a cruise with the person that means most to me, on a ship that hopefully will not get any sports channels and has no Black Friday deals will be refreshing? Next year, maybe.
Despite the fact we are staying home, I’m still excited to see my father who makes every attempt to like me all year-long. I cannot wait to eat all of the way too much food that I will work off with my already purchased boot camp classes. On Friday, we will spend time not at store, but with one another as that is what really matters- holiday or not.
My message is this- make sure that your Thanksgiving isn’t like Cinderella- where the fairytale ends at midnight. Have a safe & wonderful Thanksgiving, cherish your family, count your blessings, and may we practice what we preach every day of the year.
Happy Thanksgiving!