Thanksgiving Recap

How's that for an original title?

This hasn't exactly been the week I was hoping for.  I've spent most of it having an awful relapse of this horrible congestion, can't-breathe-through-my-nose, cough thing and the worst part of it, is that I'm not able to sleep through it all.  So I've spent the week exhausted going on maybe 2 or 3 hours of sleep each night with a full day on my plate the next day.   It's been disappointing to say the least.

Last night, I think I got about five and a half hours of sleep and it's amazing how five and a half hours of sleep can feel amazing when you only had two the night before.  But I heard that having chronic congestion is actually quite common during pregnancy.  Isn't that just dandy.

Needless to say, my Thanksgiving wasn't bad, but it was sort of blah - mostly because I was feeling blah.

And it started out with a bang the eve of Thanksgiving day when I attempted to make my own pie crusts on about three hours of sleep.  My tiredness affected my brain so much so, that I ended up adding triple the amount of shortening to the recipe for the crusts which of course, made them fall apart.  I managed to do this twice without knowing what I had done wrong.  This proceeded in a full on melt-down and my poor husband wrestled the crowds at the grocery store to bring home some ready-made crusts.  I had finally realized my shortening error by that point, but was feeling so defeated that I surrendered to Pillsbury, put the ready-made dough in my pie pan, and called it a day.

Thanksgiving morning I made an apple pie and the sweet potatoes and some appetizers and got the rolls on to a pan and did dishes and sort-of watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (while noting that the musicals of this era have nothing on Rogers and Hammerstein or Leonard Bernstein or Andrew Webber and that "Elf" or "Bring it On" should have never been made into a musicals.  Because, really?).  I was exhausted long before noon and the fact that I had no energy sucked almost all of the joy out of me.

Before the meal, Poppy read the Thanksgiving proclamation.  We sat down to eat which took about twenty minutes - even though the meal had taken over a day to prepare. I suppose the biggest disappointment of the day was that as a family, we made no time to go around and talk about what we were thankful for.  What's Thanksgiving if we're not thankful?  *sigh*

That night, Todd, Tommy and I went over to my parents house to participate in an old tradition that I hadn't been part of in years.  We watched Home Alone in honor and memory of my brother.  My nieces and nephews had never seen it before and it was fun to watch them react to all of the silly pranks that Kevin played on the robbers.  The ending to the day was sweet and I was happy to be there and feel part of them.

The day, with its disappointments and sweet moments, it's tables full of food and rooms full of family all growing, changing, getting older, left me with much to be thankful for.  Even if I felt out of it and too exhausted to relish in all that was there.

In the back of my mind all day was our sweet little blessing.  The very active boy growing inside me.  And even though I don't know what the future will look like and all that will change or stay the same with his arrival, this time next year, he will be with us.  And I can't wait.

Today we'll decorate our home for the Christmas season.  We'll put ornaments on the tree and have some hot chocolate and eat leftovers and be together as a little family.  The last Christmas season that we'll be a family of three.