Yesterday was Thanksgiving day in the US. The day traditionally set aside for visiting or entertaining family and friends, eating boatloads of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy and all the foods that oddly enough, I don’t find appealing at any other time of the year. For some, it also means watching football all.day.long.
For the last three years, we have been spending Thanksgiving with a family from our church. This family are good friends of ours. We have also celebrated other milestones together. They have graciously been hosting our Thanksgiving get-together for the last three years, opening their homes to us and to two other single mother families in our church. There have been other families on and off through those last three years but the three of us single moms have been there pretty much consistently.
So yesterday,we set about getting ready to continue the tradition. My son was excited as he has been looking forward to this. I don’t think he quite grasps the concept of Thanksgiving yet. I think he was even confusing it with Christmas as that’s what he kept on mentioning. But as long as he’s happy, I’m all for it.
Everything went well until we got to their place. They moved in the last couple of months and this is our first time in the new place. Funny, my son was even telling me where to turn on the road because he remembers how to go to their old house. Anyway, we were the last ones to get there so everybody was already waiting. I think the excitement of being there finally, the new environment and all the people (there were easily more than 20 people in attendance) got to him. He started jumping and running and was just “hyper” (as everybody was saying yesterday). I did my best to calm him down and for the most part, he was okay. Or maybe I am just so used to him that to me, that was normal. I did have to watch him closely though, make sure he did not get into any trouble.
This brings me to question whether we should continue with this. As grateful as I am for their graciousness in hosting us, I’m wondering if we should start with new holiday traditions, ones that would be easier for my son and me. I have another year to plan the next Thanksgiving but I’d like your input. How do you deal with the holidays?