Bornfamous

Sorry for the constantly changing design around here. I love the layout but can’t seem to decide on a color scheme or graphics that I like. It’ll settle down eventually… until I get sick of it again. Maybe I’ll change the colors according to the season and holiday. A Thanksgiving theme would be nice right now. Hmm.

I’m doing Thanksgiving after all. That wasn’t the plan. There wasn’t any plan, but I was getting depressed thinking about what Rocky called “just another Thursday”.

Chris and I started our own Thanksgiving tradition years ago, after my mother died and I moved to New York. There was no family to get together, just us two, and it felt a little sad and lonely. We decided to eat out, and the only restaurant we could find that wasn’t jam packed for the holiday was Benihana’s. It felt festive and rebellious, and we loved it. After Chris was on his own and I was divorced with another small son, we decided that going to a first-run movie would be our holiday tradition. Robby and I saw Aladdin that first Thanksgiving, and again on Christmas [plus a few more times] because we couldn’t get enough of it. In later years we saw Hook, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings three years running.

Other than private traditions like that, I’m not big on holidays. I don’t like the seasonal frenzy that so many prople go into every year, starting with Halloween. The costumes and candy are great, but why are they all hellbent on outdoing each other? It takes the fun out of it for me. It’s like the spirit of Disney has taken over western civilization. Everybody seems to feel that they have to relive a childhood they never had.

I miss the days when Halloween and Christmas were for kids, when little ghosts had two holes cut into white sheets so they could see and the idea of grownups in costume wasn’t even thought of, when Christmas meant a tree, family time together, and a few simple gifts–not constant pressure to top last year’s haul.

That’s why Thanksgiving will always be my favorite holiday–that and the food, of course. It’s not about competition except on the televised football field. There are no costumes, no gifts–just food, football and family. There’s nothing to top. Dinner is the main event, and it’s expected to be a faithful replay of last year, the year before and the year before that–just a plain old traditional feast. Sometimes we even remember to be thankful.

So I decided to have a real Thanksgiving in this tiny apartment. Nothing fancy–just a small turkey with Stovetop stuffing, real mashed potatoes and frozen green beans [that no one will eat but I'll microwave them anyway for the sake of tradition], fruit salad with marshmallows and whipped cream, canned cranberry sauce and a bakery pumpkin pie. I don’t have the energy to do more than that. The premade and packaged items won’t be as good as Grandma made, but they’ll be good enough.

And I invited “the in-laws”: Emily’s parents. She’s lived with us for nearly two years now–Gloria and Johnny are as close to family as we’re going to get around here.

But real family is coming. My older son and his wife will be flying in from Minnesota on a business trip this weekend, too late for the holiday but we can enjoy some leftovers together on Sunday. It will be good to spend time with them again.

I’m finally looking forward to Thanksgiving. We’re going to see that new Johnny Cash movie too.