A Good but Long Thanksgiving Day

Today was a great day for CamMad. We didn't have to travel, everyone was healthy, and we ate good food. The day actually started last night with sleeping. Both parents fell asleep put down their respective children. Fortunately I woke up and got some other things done before going to bed. Parent2 however slept the whole night and woke up at 3 AM with a full night of sleep. Fortunately the DVR had some shows that needed to watched.

CamMad slept in a little but they were rearing to go from the moment they woke up. I leisurely started to get things ready for the big meal while the kids watched the parade from the beginning to the end. Unfortunately I didn't really think about the time factor and how too many things were going to be done at the same time. You're probably saying, "What's wrong with that?" Thanksgiving day is the exception given the volume of food we cook.

The kids handled my meltdowns and stresses pretty well. The family should up on time but we ate later due to the fine print on some of the recipies. The turkey was done a half hour earlier than I anticipated. As the final food was going to the table I realized that there was no gravy, ugh! Everyone rolled with it, thankfully. As we did a family style passing around of the food I knew that something else was missing but I couldn't put my finger on it. We said grace and started eating and the food didn't come out too bad. Soon, I realized what we were missing the cranberry sauce! I believe in the can version so all was good.

CamMad did a good job trying a little bit of a lot. They liked some and didn't like others but they were typical children. The table moment of the meal was when my grandfather asked Child1 about ketchup on turkey. The response was "I've always had it that way grandpy!" That threw him off. After everyone finished eating they wanted dessert. I wanted to savor it later on.

The only probably with hosting a Thanksgiving meal was not the buying of the food, planning the menu, or cooking the meal but in cleaning up afterwards. I wasn't going to ask my family to clean but Parent2 offered. At this time it is still not done as we've had to manage children but I know it will get down.

Now we are in the middle of getting children to sleep after coming down from the holiday high. Tomorrow is a date with the grand-cousins and do it all over again on Saturday with the extended family. Sunday is the transition day with the Patriots in the late afternoon. Before we know it we'll be back to the routine!

I'm going to try to fit in some reading for pleasure into this weekend. The books have been building up since the start of the school year and this may be a time to get caught up. I hope Thanksgiving was joyful and peaceful.

Keep a thought out there to those who may not be with family on this day. For those of you who protect our freedom-I am thankful for you!