Thanksgiving Week

I am blessed to have the whole week of Thanksgiving off from work, and I'll definitely be making use of it.  Today, I hung out with my mom, and we had lunch with my sister.  Tomorrow, I'll be taking care of doctor's appointments and hopefully cleaning my house some in preparation for Christmas decorating.  Wednesday will involve cooking at my grandparents' house to get ready for the big day.  Thursday, of course, is the rest of the cooking, as well as lots of eating and being thankful for all the blessings God has given us this year.  One extra blessing--Small Cousin #2's birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year!

This year we'll be having Thanksgiving dinner at supper time, rather than at lunch.  While we have all the menfolk around, we'll get them to haul all my grandparents' Christmas decorations down from the attic.  We'll get the tree set up and some of the other decorations put around.  It's always nice to have a few second opinions!  My sister doesn't enjoy decorating a whole lot, although she does like to lobby for lots of colorful lights on the tree.  (My preference is usually for something a bit more serene.)  Small Cousin #1 will probably be engrossed in his DS, while Small Cousin #2 will be trying to get everyone to pay attention to the football game on TV.  We'll probably manage to get everyone involved in the tree-decorating once the lights (the hard part) are all finished.  At some point we'll look at the Black Friday ads.  My uncle and grandaddy will be looking for technology, my grandmother, mother, and aunt will be looking for gifts, and my sister and I will be checking to see if anything strikes our fancy enough to get up early to get it. 

One thing I like about Thanksgiving is that it's a rather laid-back holiday.  There aren't lots of day-of parties, like there are for Fourth of July.  There's not a hugely-tight family schedule--we try to schedule dinner so everyone can come, but if someone is with another part of the family, that's okay--we'll hang out with them when they get here.  If you want to lie down for a nap sometime after dinner, you can do that.  I guess the stressful part is the dinner, but I've never been responsible for more than biscuits and "help."  I help crumble the cornbread for dressing, or help toast the almonds for the green beans, or help top the sweet potatoes with mini marshmallows.  Someone else makes sure it all comes out of the oven at roughly the same time!  It's mostly a day when the whole family (or at least the local branches of it)  just hangs out together--no rush, no worries.

So, from me to all my friends and family (and anyone else who may be reading), Happy Thanksgiving!   Don't forget to sit down and spend a few minutes actually thanking God for all He's given you.