Thanksgiving Away

We moved 800 miles away from our families, so Thanksgiving was a particularly hard holiday to be on our own (like, truly on our own).

The first couple of Thanksgivings were pitiful. We were a young couple, just starting out, homesick, trying to mesh two different family traditions together. We tried to be like our parents. We tried to cook a turkey (disaster), we made too much food and sat in our little apartment. It was not awful...it just did not feel like Thanksgiving.

And then we met Liz and Jesse. They were a bit older than us. An established couple who lived nearby. And the next Thanksgiving...they invited us over. Jesse was a wonderful cook. He was born near Roswell, New Mexico. She was from Texas. The traditional turkey and stuffing we were used to gave way to a spicy difference. It was the first time I had jalapeno corn bread (YUM!). They made us feel at home and we were comfortable and happy. We were over to their house for a few more Thanksgivings and then they had their daughter and were called upon to visit their relatives.

It was time once again to be on our own for Thanksgiving. But this time--we bought a small Turkey breast. We had a small little feast. And we were comfortable in our skins, in our homelife, in our own traditions.

And then we had Michael. And the time to make our own traditions became stronger. Each year, the holidays became our own and our family integrated traditions from our families and changed them to fit our situation. The Pie For Breakfast tradition was born. The stay in our pjs for Thanksgiving tradition began.

And now. Well, now we are invited over to our friend Colt's house. This makes the third Thanksgiving in a row. Sometimes I miss our pjs tradition, but it is nice to feel like we are part of a family bigger than our own. It is definitely more of the traditional Thanksgiving over at Colt's house--turkey, homemade mashed potatoes and stuffing, pumpkin pie (Colt's a good cook--and doesn't like help--he's kinda persnickety about that--which is fine--I don't really like to cook!). Football is on in the background, relatives are there (alternatively cooing at how cute Willow is and helping to keep her out of trouble). Colt has an old Atari 800 and some point Michael will beg to play it for a while.

I guess each phase of our Thanksgivings have reflected where we were in our life. Right now we are in the phase of a toddler and teenager and established friends.

But we still have Pie for Breakfast.