Thanksgiving in kind of a strage holiday to me. Growing up it was always a big family event where all local family would gather to feast and enjoy each other’s company. We rotated houses each year (and also taking into account who would be doing Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner that year) between my house, my Gran’ma’s house and my Aunt’s house. I don’t remember ever being away from home for Thanksgiving before I left for college. Thanksgiving seemed like most other family holidays (Christmas, Easter) and the most important part to me was seeing and spending time with my family.
As a mommy, my family doesn’t have such solid Thanksgiving traditions. We tend to travel to visit family over the long weekend and oddly, the only Thanksgivivngs we have celebrated in our home was in Dublin (we’ve never done Thanksgiving at home in Florida).
Honeybun’s first Thanksgiving we took her on her first airplane ride to visit my family in Colorado. It was also Hubby’s first Thanksgiving with my family in Colorado. We had a really nice visit with everyone but it was much too short since I was working three jobs and hubby didn’t want to take too much time off either.
The next year we visited hubby’s family in Massachusettes for my first Thanksgiving there. We found out just before we left that I was pregnant with Sugarplum. I was soooo sick the whole time but hubby didn’t want to tell anyone so I did my best to hide it (though I’m not too sure I was very successful!). We had a really great visit with hubby’s family and the day after we found out we would FINALLY be moving to Dublin (we had been waiting since June for the official news).
The next two years we were in Dublin. The first my cousin and a few of her girlfriends came for a visit and I cooked my first ever Thanksgiving dinner for a crowd (I did it once in Oklahoma for just hubby and the year we were married before my Nana died) and first ever big American meal in my Irish kitchen with Irish ingerdients!
The second year, Thanksgiving fell during my Residency at Dance Ireland and my sister was in town to watch the girls while I was gone during the day. The American Women’s Club of Dublin had a fancy family Thanksgiving dinner as a fundraiser for a local charity which I helped to plan and we all went. I really enjoyed (and still miss) the American cromroderie of the club.
Last year, our first year back in the states, we again headed to Massachusettes and it finally started to feel like we were making our own family traditions though they are jumbled up between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We went with hubby’s parents to get their Christmas tree, made gingerbread houses and did other arts and crafts. This year we are again with hubby’s family and doing many of the same things as last year including going Christmas tree picking in a few days.
In our 6 years celebrating Thanksgiving with our children, I have come full circle, realizing we’re right back where I started: focusing Thanksgiving on family. It doesn’t matter where we are or what family we are with as long as we are together and making memories with those that we are fortunate to be spending the holiday with. After all, Thanksgiving is about being thankful and I am so thankful for our families, near and far!
