For as long as I can remember, Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday. A full day set aside to celebrate thankfulness. A day set aside for spending time with family and friends. A day that is all about looking outside of ourselves and reminding our hearts to be overflowing with gratitude. Sometimes I feel sorry for Thanksgiving....sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas, barely getting a few weeks of prep and focus. It often feels like Thanksgiving is the underdog of holidays. We have even pushed Black Friday shopping so much that families can no longer enjoy the full day. Not that I am against shopping or Christmas prep...I love Christmas as well. I just want to give Thanksgiving its time. We tend to speed through our lives so quickly; we often forget to pause, take a deep breath, and simply be in the moment. On Thanksgiving, we have the opportunity to be in the moment with a heart posture of gratitude.
Our Thanksgiving lacks any frills. I don't have any fancy dinnerware (that all broke years ago). I buy Thanksgiving themed paper plates and cups. We buy Sparkling Cider and drink it from paper cups. We set a bouquet of flowers (purchased by my husband on his way home from work Wednesday night) on the table, and it is quickly moved when the children sit down to play "The Great Dalmuti." Everyone arrives at noon. We eat in three different rooms because the 19 of us cannot fit in one room. My in-laws bring a folding table....I throw a paper tablecloth on it. We haul out the folding chairs, and enjoy our time. Thankful for who can be with us, while missing those who live too far away to join us.
We don't see the cell phones out on Thanksgiving, unless they are being used for photos or videos. Not because I have made this a rule, but because we all enjoy being with each other. We want face to face time. We want to make memories and not miss a moment of it. After dinner, we play game after game. Everyone participates from the youngest child to the oldest grandparent. We play Mafia, Family Feud, Charades, and Mad Libs Theater. We laugh until we are crying. We get loud....then louder.
We eat dessert. It takes nearly an hour to finish dessert because we are all visiting. After dessert, we visit some more. Friends start to trickle home at 6:00. At 7:00 we are still visiting with family, laughing and almost sad to see the day end. Then it really is time to go home. Everyone participates in cleaning up the house, and it is done within minutes. The "good-byes" start. In our family it takes at least 30 minutes to say goodbye. There are 16 of us to get through. The younger kiddos carry on the tradition of "good-bye" pick ups, giving hugs and picking each other up in the process. The older kids hug and perform their secret handshakes. Everyone hugs everyone...and by the time we are done, we feel the need to do it all over again. At the end, we shut the door. We sit and talk about the great day we had. We pull out Boggle because we are not quite done. We play for a while then the younger ones are put to bed. The older kids sit to watch a movie, and hubby and I crawl into bed, content and thankful.
