Thanksgiving 2014

This Thanksgiving was very emotional for me. Not only is there a hormonal connection (ahem, pregnant!), but the recent and continuing drama with my parents made it feel bigger, more important, something. I NEEDED it to go well. I NEEDED some normalcy. I NEEDED it to be what I wanted/hoped/wished/desired it to be. Most people know this, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I like that it's just a simple time to gather and be grateful. I don't dislike getting Christmas presents, of course, but sometimes it nice to have a time not devoted to any kind of gift getting.

The Thanksgivings of my childhood involved food, family, and board games. We'd stay up way late playing games at my Grandma's house (like midnight!). (And then when she got older, we began a tradition of decorating her house for her in the afternoon after the meal.) Thanksgivings were an All Day Affair, with mom and I arriving at Grandma Mattison's house early, like 9am. (My dad was always up north hunting and thus not present.) We'd walk in and shout "Happy Thanksgiving!" to whatever family was already there, stomping off the snow and making a boots pile near the door. My uncles would watch tv and my mom and aunts would be prepping and talking in the other room, which left lots of time for my cousins and I to play/and or watch the parade before the lunch-time meal. We'd eat lunch, maybe watch some more tv (football), and then play games. So, in my head, that's what Thanksgiving is supposed to look like.

Since Seth and I started hosting Thanksgiving (when we got married), that's how I've wanted the day to be--all day affair with lots of game playing. It's never quite worked out that way for a variety of reasons, and I'm working on being ok with that. This year, it felt like this was as important as having oxygen. I had to have it work well and like my memories that I couldn't hardly think about it without dissolving into a sobbing mess. It was a bit much, even I can admit that, but I couldn't help the tears!

The day went great. Not exactly as my childhood ones did, but good nonetheless. And that's ok. The best part was later in the day, with Seth at the piano playing some Name That Tune, Austin and I dancing, Kim taking a video and others singing/talking/laughing around us. It was one of those moments out of a movie, where time seems to stand still and you can look around and have a sense that you're outside of your body/outside of time, watching the scene happen. It was awesome. It's a moment that I'll forever treasure and which will continue to serve as a reminder that change is fine, change is good, and that Thanksgiving can still be an awesome holiday, even if it isn't an all day affair and doesn't involve playing board games all evening.

Our day started as is Our Thanksgiving Normal... Watching the parade on the couch. The weather was nice enough that the boys requested to go outside several times which worked well because Seth could be more productive and I could take in more of the parade without them interrupting me. Once the parade was over, we got ready and then Rory and Kim/David arrived. Rory brought some veggies and dip which was perfect since we weren't eating until like 5pm. We hung out outside, with the chimenea burning, the boys playing, and some veggies and olives to tide us over.

We went around the dinner table sharing the thing we're most thankful for from the past year and that's not something I did as a kid, but something I love and look forward to. I've taken to have everyone write their thing down so I put them in my scrapbook. Such a wonderful way to preserve memories! After the meal, we took the annual picture and hung out together. It didn't seem like anyone else wanted to play board games and so that didn't happen at all that day. I was kind of ok with that because we played some in August on vacation, so I'd recently had a chance to laugh and play games, though I still hope for games next year. I don't think Spencer/Cheryl and Kim/David left until like after 10, which was AWESOME in my opinion. That's one of my favorite things about the day--it being a long day together.

Anyways, all in all, it was a very good day. I'm thankful for this family to have accepted me and all my quirks and for a husband who works very hard to make this holiday as special for me as he can. Here are the few pictures I took from Thanksgiving:

watching the parade with Momma..

a pretty small gathering compared to most years

a few things to snack on...

enjoying the great weather

Annual Spofford Picture, Thanksgiving 2014

On a crafting/blogging/sharing note, I decided to make Thanksgiving a longer holiday season, longer than just the day. I feel like we spend so much time working to make Christmas a month long and not just a single day, and I wanted to do something similar for Thanksgiving. And especially since December tends to be all about Getting, I wanted to spend November Being Grateful for things we already have. So, each day (or as often as we could remember to do it!), we'd take a strip of paper and ask the boys what they were thankful for. Austin did most of the giving us answers and some days were more meaningful than others, but whatever he said, we wrote down and added to our paper chain. The chain grew one circle per day and was the full length of the mantle by the time we were done. Here are some pictures of our Gratefulness Paper Chain:

the whole, completed chain

"My family--Momma, Daddy, Austin, Graham, and Georgia"

"paper"

"Rescue Bots" and "America's Funniest Videos"