Thursday, November 24, 2011

Ghosts of Thanksgiving past

I know you are all anxiously awaiting photos of the new home but you will had to wait as it is Thanksgiving and I have to the obligatory "I am thankful for...." post. Except I am not going to do that post (come, on, we all know what I am thankful for-my husband, my sons, my family, my home, my laundry chute, Black Friday sales...).

I am going to tell you about Thanksgiving in our home. Since we don't live close to our families we don't get to spend every holiday with them. This has caused us to come up with our own traditions for Thanksgiving (and all the other holidays). When we realized we were going to have our first Thanksgiving alone in Savannah we were SO excited. No traveling to 8 different homes to make everyone happy. No having to pretend we liked eating green bean casserole. Heck, as far as we are concerned we will never expose our children to the horror that is green bean casserole. Or dried out turkey. Because unlike other people in our family we choose to brine it and cook it for only 2-3 hours instead of getting up at the crack of dawn to let it dry out in the oven all day. We could have sweet potatoes, but not with mini marshmallows melted on top giving it a nice chemically topping.  In short, we were finally adults and could do whatever we wanted for Thanksgiving dinner and IT WAS GREAT.

Of course we had to get used to each other's traditions, such as mine for watching the Macy's Parade in the morning (I have got to see Santa roll in on his sleigh or my holiday season just does not start) and C's for watching football all evening long. But eventually we learned to compromise (after a couple years of us switching back and forth between the two as we walked through the living room).

We usually have friends and/or family over if we can. There was the year that my brothers came to visit me (during our first deployment) and we had a great dinner together with a friend of mine whose family was not used to the American tradition of "thanksgiving dinner". That was the year I dropped a pot lid on my foot and broke my toe, but also the year that I got to enjoy downtown Savannah decorated for Christmas which we documented via the disposable camera that we bought because I left my camera at home. Good times! Another year we had single soldiers with no where to go over for a home cooked meal. Two years ago we had my mom and stepdad and some friends of our over (one whom was a vegetarian and we forgot about that little fact until most of the food was cooked and we could no longer substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock. Luckily she drank enough to not question if her sickness was from the vino or the food!).  Yeah, we are awesome hosts.

If C is home and has the chance he always signs up to serve food to the soldiers and their families at the DFAC. Why I have not learned my lesson and just had dinner there with him instead of cooking, I do not know. Maybe at our next post.

We have had a couple Thanksgivings over friend's houses, one year (Wesley's first Thanksgiving) because we were getting ready to move into our house we had just built and there was no way we were going to be able to cook dinner and this past year (Henry's first Thanksgiving) because well, kinda the same thing although we didn't end up moving and C had just come home from a deployment and heck, when good friends invite you over take a gift basket and go (or maybe I am just lazy on years I have a kid...hmmm...must have more kids to research this...)! I love the military friends and family we have made over the years and the good times we have had with them (I guess you could say I am thankful for them). I picked up a fantastic recipe for Ulgy Dip at my friend Ali's house on Wesley's first Thanksgiving and I have great memories of playing games at Sabrina and Dustin's house on Henry's first Thanksgiving.

Next year we will probably be in Maryland to see my sister-in law, her husband and our two nephews that we have never met. I can't wait for the cousins to play together for the first time, I hope we all make it there.

It's the end of our 8th married Thanksgiving. Dinner was fabulous, we are all sleepy and the dishes are still in the sink (which wouldn't be an issue but my mother in law is coming tomorrow and well, the house needs to be cleaned up before she arrives). Maybe for Christmas this year I will finally get that house elf I have been asking for. You can tell Santa if you see him that I have been REALLY REALLY good this year. ;)

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