This year, Jenny and I had a different set-up for Thanksgiving, and I loved it. Fewer people meant more opportunity to join intimate conversation. Get this – I talked religion, science, mindfulness, and personal responsibility with people I am still learning to trust. It was a safe conversation, and I found support from my newly expanded family.
Sometimes, the small, passionate, moments are the ones that you remember from the holidays. I will likely remember the pie I made (Peanut), because it didn’t go over too well. I probably won’t remember why I preferred the turkey to the lamb this year. But I will remember little talks with family. I will remember the shared smiles. I will remember how it felt to hold the newest family baby. (That child is beautiful, and those little screams of joy were perfect, even if I’m glad I didn’t hear them all night.) I will remember this as a passionate holiday, but one free of drama.
Of course, I will also remember trying to go outside for an unknown (but totally important!) reason, and tripping through the screen door. Not only did I rip it out of its channel, I managed to stab the underside of my foot! Thankfully, my new father-in-law-type-awesome-person had done the same before. We returned it to its normal state, and the party went on. He did tell me to blame the accident on whichever doofus took the tape off of the screen door, telling me that it was how he saw the screen most of the time. With a sheepish grin, I told him that I was, in fact, that very same doofus.
We saw the day through with love, laughter, and fun. I’m always left terribly thrilled to have spent time with our family, and this Cthurkey Day was happily added to that vault of treasured memories.