The Stress-Free Thanksgiving

I'm so lucky.



Yes...I love my family, and I enjoy the holidays, and spending time with my family during the holidays. What I don't love, however, is all the stress that surrounds those days. You all know what I'm talking about. There are days and days of preparation and planning, cleaning, shopping, cooking, serving, hosting, visiting, blah blah blah, all of which leads to stress and exhaustion.

This year, I totally got a "pass" on Thanksgiving.

For those who don't know, my family is split between WV and NC. We no longer do the whole "extended family" dinners, which -- trust me -- is FINE by me. My parents and my older brother and his family live in NC, while my younger brother and I live in WV. I always have to work on the days surrounding Thanksgiving, so I'm unable to travel anywhere for this particular holiday. Normally the NC crew makes the trek here to WV and my house literally becomes the Holiday Inn. I'm not complaining about that! Even when it's noisy and crowded and crazy, I still love having them here.

This year, though, David and Michelle and their five chillen are staying in NC for the holiday, and having a big dinner with friends at home. My parents, Mimi and Poppa, are at my house through Saturday. I think the plan for them is to have dinner either at my brother's house, or down the street at his in-laws. *sigh* The in-laws? Really? And their extended family too? Ughhhh....

Yeah, I gotta tell ya, that's not really working for me. I have to be at work really early Friday morning, and the last thing I feel like doing is spending the day with people I don't know very well, and having to be on my best behavior, because we all know how much I hate to do that. So the beloved Mimi actually headed all that off for me, and before I even said a word about it, she called and said "Ya know, honey, if you want to make other plans for Thursday, that's ok with me and daddy."

SWEET!

So New Guy and I are cooking dinner at his house tomorrow. As of right now, it's just the two of us, although there may be a drop-in or two at some point. We're looking forward to just being able to have a relaxing, stress-free day. I can't tell you how excited I am about that! Is it strange that I'm not going to spend Thanksgiving dinner with my family? Maybe a little --- but keep in mind, my family spends quite a lot of time together already, so Thanksgiving is just like a regular day for us, but with way more food and entirely too much football. We hung out together Tuesday night, and my parents spent the morning with me today. I'll see them again for dinner tomorrow evening, and in a couple more weeks, I'll go to Charlotte for Crimmus. It's all good!

So this Thanksgiving, I'd like to wish all of you a safe and happy holiday, and let you know that I'm forever grateful to have you in my corner. :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!