Giving Thanks for a Thanksgiving Not to Plan

Hello my friends and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Personally, I am still full from turkey and sweet potatoes and there are still left overs… I get full just by looking at them lol. This is going to be a shorter article because I need to return to my food coma, but I felt I needed to share this little story.

Thanksgiving has long been one of my favorite holidays, I mean what’s not to love? Lots of food, the Thanksgiving Parade, and family coming over to share our cooking. Plus the Bob’s Burgers Thanksgiving specials are my favorite things ever. Besides the obvious reasons to love Thanksgiving, the holiday has been one of the few times out of the year that I have gotten to see my parents and siblings since we’ve lived so far a part. Thirteen hours to be exact and the drive from Oklahoma to Tennessee is a brutal one. So this year being our first year in Tennessee and so close to my family, I was prepared and excited to go all out. I had recipes on standby, an outfit picked out, and an unshakeable optimism that despite the fact that this move has been so hard on us, this first big holiday here would be perfect. Don’t get me wrong I tempered my expectation of perfect into the realm of possibility, maybe a little rose colored but still. I wasn’t thinking or expecting a lot. All I wanted was to go to my parents, have good food, and enjoy my family, something that had been so hard to get together and do for so long. Doable right?

Wrong.

Two days before the holiday I get a text from my mom, one of my little sisters has tested positive for the flu and is going to be contagious through Thanksgiving. She doesn’t want us getting sick to so can we reschedule? I’m not going to lie, my initial reaction was ugly. I got angry, cried, and then yelled about how unfair it was and everything revolves around my sister. Not a flattering portrait to paint of myself, but it’s the truth.

Moving states is hard for anyone. We left our friends and familiarity behind to be closer to my family and be in a state that doesn’t have evil grass stickers. But in a matter of months, six to be exact, Jon was fired from our primary income, I left one for another and then my health and mental health took a turn for the worst making me unable to work. I realized I hated working in healthcare, like really hated it, and that I wanted to follow my dream of being an archeologist and working in history a passion I’ve had since I was in seventh grade. Regardless of the fact that it isn’t something you pursue for the money. Some days it still seems like our lives are falling down around us and making rent has become a herculean effort that is scrimped and saved for the entirety of the month. So while my reaction to being told we wouldn’t be having Thanksgiving was irrational, personally I felt I was at least a little justified with everything else that I had on my plate.

I cried for two days. Stupid I know, but not only was I not going to be seeing my family, I wasn’t going to be able to have a Thanksgiving at all. I threw a pity party for myself and refused to do anything.

Well apparently this didn’t sit right with my dear husband and I guess I must have looked pretty down because he bought a turkey, some ingredients for sides, and brought in some can do attitude so that we could have our own Thanksgiving for just us. After being a human lump for two days, I decided he was right and I worked all day so we could have our own dinner. And when we finally sat down together, I felt the weight of having the perfect thanksgiving leave me. I was happy that even if it wasn’t what I imagined, we had made the best of the situation and I made some pretty good turkey if I do say so myself. We wore stretchy pants and watched christmas movies. We talked about all the things that we remembered from Oklahoma that we were going to miss as Christmas was on its way and all the people we wish we could have invited for a friendsgiving. We played video games for a little while and we just enjoyed ourselves and our time together.

I felt as though I deflated a little bit as I realized that all I needed to be thankful for resided in this tiny one bedroom apartment. A partner that loved me and supported me, my two dogs that loved me unconditionally and tried to steal a turkey wing all day, and myself. Despite how hard life has been on me, I’m still here to see little moments like when we sit down together and enjoy our food, when the dogs cuddle together at the foot of our bed, and when all of us are curled up on the couch content to just be. It’s these little moments that I should have focused on instead of throwing a tantrum that I wouldn’t get my big holiday. I should have been grateful that despite everything we are making the best of a bad situation everyday.

I hope you all had a great turkey day, and I hope you can learn from my mistake. Be grateful for the big things, sure, but focus on the little everyday things that make life ok. Drop a comment below on something small that you’re grateful for, maybe something that you forgot on Thanksgiving or something that you take for granted most days.

Thank you so much for reading this far! I appreciate each and everyone of you that are here and I’m thankful for your support in this holiday season. Feel free to drop a comment or share this piece with your loved ones!

Until our next adventure!