Home for the holiday

We spent Thanksgiving this year not with our family but with our very good friends, Connie and Gary, and our new friends, Padma and Alex. It ranked right up there with all of our really nice and very fun Thanksgivings at home, at my sister's house. Every year since we have lived in this city, we have traveled the 500 or so miles "home" for Thanksgiving. This year, we stayed put. You could say we stayed "home." And, we had to admit, it was really nice. Don't get me wrong. We missed seeing our family and our old friends. But, we were so happy that we didn't have to travel with, like, everyone else in the country during the busiest travel weekend of the year. We got to do things we never do on Thanksgiving. After sleeping in a little late, reading the newspapers, listening to a great NPR interview with Calvin Trillin and having some pre-Thanksgiving pumpkin pie for breakfast, we decided to go for a walk. We explored our neighborhood and saw it in a whole new light. The whole vibe of the city was different today. Everything was quiet and peaceful. Chilled out. It was a beautiful, sunny, breezy and colorful fall day. I noticed how pretty the trees are in the park near our house. We walked through the park and saw ducks in a stream. We walked along a path and learned about some of the history of our area by reading the historic markers along the way. We went to the zoo and saw sea lions and watched two otters chasing some bugs in their den. At one point, yellow leaves came showering down from the trees above, like snow. It was beautiful. It made us happy. Later, in the middle of the afternoon, we made our way to Connie and Gary's house for Thanksgiving dinner. They made their first turkey this year and it was just delicious. We had a feast that also included green beans, salad, butternut squash, sweet potatoes complete with marshmallows on top, corn bread stuffing, and two kinds of pie! We made new friends, Padma and Alex. It was the first Thanksgiving away from family for all of us. We all remarked how we felt a little guilty enjoying ourselves so much but also realized how much more relaxed we all were not having to travel. Alex put it best, "Isn't it weird how we feel guilty for listening to our bodies?" When you put it that way, I don't feel quite so guilty at all! And, it wasn't like we were totally out of touch. We spoke on the phone with our family today, and we even made an emergency call to my sister, who has Thanksgiving dinner down to a science, when we were unsure if Connie's turkey was finished cooking. Now, we're back home. The leftovers are in the fridge. The kitties are snuggled up with us. We are happy in our cozy apartment. Maybe we'll have some more pie. The baby is kicking and moving like crazy. In only about six weeks, he or she will be born into our snug little home. I am thankful for the beautiful day we had today, for the delicious food we enjoyed, for the peacefulness and relaxation we experienced, for the laughter we shared with friends, for our cozy home in this wonderful neighborhood in a great city that we love, for being able to spend a holiday with our kitties (really!), for feeling the love of our family even from afar, for all the great Thanksgivings we've had before and the many, many more to come. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for. ~ Nicole