Thanksgiving in Review

Some Thanksgivings, I can remember very vividly. For instance, there was the one year when the Coffins hosted and Lynsey fought Miss Jessica for the last piece of praline torte by licking the top of it. Or two years ago, when Jake was going through chemotherapy and he stole mashed potatoes off my plate; I didn't have the heart to protest because we were trying to fatten him up in preparation for chemo treatment. Or last year, when Jake regaled us with stories of "Humans vs. Zombies" on his college campus. All of my memories involve beautiful weather, playing football in the front yard, and of course, lots of food.

For some reason, this year was different. This year didn't feel like Thanksgiving, and I'm not sure why.

First thing in the morning, our family (minus Cam) walked a few laps around the park. It's one of our traditions to go for a walk before or after dinner on Thanksgiving. Pat was such a trooper! Dad even jogged with him a bit and he walked further than he has in a while!

Dad and Pat

This was by far the smoothest Thanksgiving we've had. Mom divvy-ed up the dishes so we only had to make a third of the meal and the rest was potluck style. Two turkeys, two sweet potato casseroles, one salad, and three stuffings later, we had a full-on feast on our hands!

After dinner, we took the whole crew back to the park for a little Thanksgiving football. I am proud to say I made the first touchdown! Our team won 21 to 7.

So thankful for my man!

I think it was the differences that made it not feel like Thanksgiving for me. We ate at 2pm, a few hours earlier than usual, played football at the park instead of the street, brined the turkey before roasting it. We totally forgot to go around the table saying what we were thankful for (though I'd been asking people all day)... Just little things like that. I guess at the end of the day, they added up. 

But after everyone left, Jake stayed and we were able to relax and detox a bit. Jake, Dad, and I sat on the back porch talking and playing guitar for a while. Or we were all sitting on the couch while Mom and Dad sifted through Black Friday ads. Jake and I went for a nice walk and talked about a whole bunch of different things. All things considered, it was a great day, just not exactly the feeling I expected.

Post-Thanksgiving sandwich