Post Thanksgiving Pre Christmas or something

 Alright, Thanksgiving has been done. Several days of time spent with Capt's family and some friends, and a lot of food. I am hoping, for her sake, his mother decides to pass the tradition on to someone else. She works hard and deserves, at her age, to not do it. Not that I don't appreciate it, she's a lovely woman and does a phenomenal job, but....it's time to let someone else do it. Capt, possibly, fried his last turkeys and will be, hopefully, be passing those responsibilities on to a younger person.  If he's relieved of the turkey job then we may do our own thing elsewhere for Thanksgiving. 

So now it's on to Christmas.  I dug out a couple of red sweaters that need to be washed and dried to get 11 months of packed-away wrinkles out, and with a couple of red plaid skirts and some boots, will serve as a panoply of Holiday Accoutrement. Recently I acquired a nice women's fedora, and perhaps something festive will go on that as well. Who knows. All this is mood-dependent.

As for household decor, also mood-dependent. A long long time ago, when household income was fairly tight, I had the idea that our young children could pick out a mug, one of those shaped like a Santa Claus head, to give me as a Christmas gift. Those mugs are cheerful, ubiquitous, and just the sort of thing a young child would choose for a parent. It became an annual thing and now I've got a collection of about 40 of them, ranging from Dollar Tree finds to vintage ones from Ebay, to a couple of super fancy Fitz and Floyd offerings. All are precious to me because of the meaning behind them. They get scattered throughout the house, and with the exception of the very old ones, are available for hot chocolate or coffee to whomever wants to use one. If one gets broken, it gets glued back together and relegated to the top of the bathroom cabinets, or for use holding measuring spoons. 

Capt, having been in the wood products industry for many years, prefers not to use a live tree, so we have a pretty good fake one that may or may not see the light of day. Between the 2 of us we have some cute ocean and travel themed ornaments, all with memories attached from assorted travels. When the kids were all gone, and it was just me, I retired all the ornaments from the years past. Eventually when they have their own families, I will let them go through and choose what they want, and the rest will go back into storage for descendants to find and use. Starting over with a new life also means starting over with a new Christmas tree, and new traditions. I don't mind, it feels like the right thing to do.

Our house is set way back off the road, and no one sees it but us. Because of this, I don't mess with lights on the roof or garlands on the porch rails. I suppose if we traveled during the holiday, and had the camper parked somewhere public like an RV park, I'd decorate in a fun way, but we haven't done that thus far. Maybe one day. Not today.

One of the ways I handle the whole gift-thing is to make stuff. We have 3 grandkids who are young enough to still get a big kick out of opening gifts on Christmas morning, so they'll get something, but everyone else is going to get a box of handmade yummies that I've been working on since July. A few boxes of Mason jars, and a lot of work in front of a stove or a dehydrator has resulted in a bunch of goodies to load into boxes and deliver to people who can get their own sweaters and socks if they need them. I have no expectations of anything more than a hug and a phone call, and perhaps a tasty meal fixed by Capt. Hopefully involving something beefy.

Anyway, that's all I've got to say about that right now.

Thanksgiving cometh

 I realize there is a Movement in this country to eliminate Thanksgiving. Apparently it is indicative of the White Man's take-over of this country, stealing it from the indigenous folk who were here first. Ok, I can kind of see that. However, as a solidly white person with a dribble of Native American from a multi-great grandmother who had a relationship with a white man, I embrace Thanksgiving. There were a bunch of white folks who were helped out by a bunch of Natives way back in the day, and Thanksgiving is a recognition of that, and has morphed into the current incarnation, where we give thanks for what we have...whatever that may be.

As for me, I have much for which to be thankful this year. Some I won't go into, some I will. 

Without giving details that aren't mine to give, I am thankful for the way situations have worked out with family members. Stuff was bad, now it's not. Healing seems to be happening in certain arenas. For that, I am thankful. I say seems...because I can only go by what I see and while I know sometimes (often times) things aren't exactly what they look like on the surface, currently I am giving thanks for what I see. Every morning. 

The first thing I do upon waking up is to thank God that I woke up, and that I didn't get a middle-of-the-night phone call from a hospital, saying I needed to get there immediately because of some dire circumstance involving one of my family members. Then I go down the list of people I love, and give thanks for the improved circumstances in their lives. I figure a good way to start the day is to give thanks, rather than ask for stuff.  

I guess in that way, every day is Thanksgiving. Every day is Easter as well....giving thanks for Christ's resurrection and all that means. 

Then there's the...sort of...Day of Thanksgiving. You know, that last Thursday in November where people eat too much and maybe get up with their cousins or something. One of the delightful parts of being with Capt's family is that Thanksgiving is a Big Deal. It's not just one day. Oh no. It gets stretched out into 4 days of gluttony, excess, and hooting about football. People start coming in on Wednesday, so there's a giant Low Country Boil (look it up) and Cousin Drew brings a sack of oysters as well. Then Thursday everyone meets at a different house and eats too much. Capt fries turkeys and everyone else brings everything else and there's food enough for 1000 even though usually there's 40-50 including screaming children and Aunt Ann who's a lovely person but can't remember anything, nonetheless is as gracious and wonderful as an Old South Matriarch could possibly be.  I am particularly charmed and grateful that they accept and welcome my children even though we're new to the mix. 

On Friday, people lay around and groan and eat leftovers, gearing up and recovering to get ready for Saturday. That's the day of The Iron Bowl...the biggest and fiercest rivalry in the entire country. Auburn versus Alabama. This year it's being played in Auburn. There are 2 of us who went to Auburn, the rest are Alabama alumni and there's some bit of the Alabama School of Business with a family name attached so the loyalty is absolute. The party starts early, and there's a plurality of TVs showing every angle and announcer, a beer fridge, snacks for 100, and Capt's father graciously put an Auburn magnet on his Alabama beer fridge.

True story: I met Capt's family for the first time Thanksgiving 2017. Now, generally is it expected Alabama will win. They're like that. As for Auburn, I am always surprised with they win anything. Well. That year, Auburn beat Alabama at the Iron Bowl. And I was sitting there, surrounded by dedicated Alabama people, the lone Auburn person in my orange shirt, sucking it in so hard because I'd just met these people and wanted to make a good impression. Capt was begging me to not gloat, and I was closing my watering eyes, trying so hard. Hopefully I managed to be calm about it. I know that his parents (father especially) took it hard but he was gracious. I told him I was sorry his team had lost, because it meant ever so much more to him than it did to me.  

Anyway, the whole point of this is that, Thanksgiving is a big deal, probably the biggest deal of the year. Christmas isn't much anymore. The kids are grown and off elsewhere. Even though I've spent the last 2 months prepping gifts for them, there won't be much in the way of festivities or decorations happening. With no youngun's I don't see the point. There's a few grandkids, but only one is local and his other set of grandparents do Christmas so over-the-top I figure that covers what we don't go.

It really is my favorite holiday, and has been for many, many years. Even when there were kids at home and Christmas meant something. I've preferred Thanksgiving since...I don't know...the late 1980's. There's no obligations to be fancy( Easter or Halloween) or give presents (Easter or Christmas) or blow stuff up (like Independence Day). It's just...food, and gratitude. I have so very much to be grateful for and while I try to keep that in mind every day, the once-a-year mandated reminder kicks it into high gear, and I get to eat fried turkey, pineapple casserole, and lady peas. 

And I am so very thankful for those things, as well as the roof over my head, the freedom to gripe about my government, fresh water, and that my kids are all provided for. Those are all things that should never be taken for granted.