Thanksgiving & Family

Exactly two months ago from today my family grew a lot bigger. This Thanksgiving it's easy for me to find things to be thankful for, the many blessings in my life in the form of all the wonderful people who inhabit it. I love this time of year, even though the multitude of Christmas decorations that are already up annoy me, because of the amount of love and warmth surrounding the entire season. We move from Thanksgiving, where people finally take the time to look at all the things and people they've otherwise taken for granted, into the Christmas/Chanukah holidays, which is still all about love and family and togetherness.

 I am especially thankful for the amount of sane family members I have. The holidays can be an incredibly stressful time, especially when two families have come together as a family but don't have any holiday traditions as a family together. My husband and I are extremely fortunate that we are able to spend some time on each holiday with some of both of our families because my parents and his father both live in the same area as us. However, that also means that both families want to see us on both holidays!!!

This kind of thing could turn into WWIII in some combined families, but our families are very generous. Today we spent a few hours at my Aunt's house with my parents, grandparents, some aunts and uncles and cousins, chatting and eating appetizers. The time we were planning on leaving coincidentally coincided with when dinner was ready, so we said grace with them and then headed off to my husband's aunt's house for dinner with his Dad, stepmother, aunt and cousins.  Of course we wish we could have an entire day with both families, but sometimes in life those ideal situations aren't possible and it's important to make the best of it, which I think we have. I think our experience is exactly what the holidays are about - spending time with the people we love however we can.

Hopefully next year we'll be able to travel to Georgia and get some time in with my husband's mom and grandparents =)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Remember to share the love, and appreciate it, until next Thanksgiving.