Thanksgiving Dinner at Dinner Time!!! What!???
I’m a Thanksgiving Dictator. And the reasons why are as follows:
Family (I was about to write homemade rolls but realized that shouldn’t come first.)
Homemade Rolls
Mashed Potatoes (with gravy from the drippings)
My Mother-in-Laws cornbread dressing
Naps
Eating early and getting to eat again
The above things must all be included in Thanksgiving, or I will demand that we repeat it for Christmas. This actually happened when I was pregnant with Analiese in 2004. We went to visit extended family for Thanksgiving at Daran’s great grandmother’s house. The house was tiny and it was super warm out because we were in Southeastern Oklahoma. There was no where to sit inside the house so I sat on a stoop outside with my sister-in-law, Courtney, who was also pregnant. Let’s just say that only #1 from the list was included in that Thanksgiving. So I was super sad and demanded that we have Thanksgiving for Christmas that year. We went all out. The day of Christmas dawned with all of the above planned. I was beside myself with joy. Since this was also Christmas day, we added in a special birthday cake for Jesus that we do every year. This particular year I made a lemon meringue cake and it was beautiful. The night before Ayden was feeling sick. He struggled opening presents that morning. Unbeknownst to us, he had a stomach virus that we would all catch. We started dropping like flies that afternoon. My brother-in-law, Gerrad, had to make a trip to the ER that night because he is diabetic and couldn’t keep food down. We tried to sing happy birthday and eat the birthday cake for Jesus with the last few people standing. About two days later, we came out of the haze of intense sickness and realized that all the once beautiful food looked like death disguised as delicious Thanksgiving food. In the trash can it all went to be replaced with bland chicken noodle soup. Needless to say, we did not have Thanksgiving food for a few years. The wound was deep.
You may wonder why in the world I sent this to you. And the reasons why are as follows:
Sometimes the things that matter to us don’t really matter at all. (The list above - except #1)
You matter to us and I wanted to say thank you for always believing in us, praying for us and supporting us. Thanksgiving is about being thankful and we are beyond thankful for all of you. You are our heroes!