As we get prepared for the upcoming holidays, may I wish each of you who actually read this a most un-dysfunctional family Thanksgiving. I realize in so doing I am assuming that you are either planning on sleeping through the entire experience or you are a member of the Cleaver family.
At every family gathering, there are unwritten rules and there are usually elephants in the living room...and I don't mean Alabama fans or Republicans. I mean those things that we overlook by decree, or by joint understanding that to raise the issue would require intervention by a professional counselor or local law enforcement. It might be as simple as letting a relative belch at the table unchallenged, or as complicated as dealing with someone who could go in any direction in any given year...leaving a trail of destruction that may or may not require therapy.
Actually, most of us are actually energized and entertained by being in the presence of our families instead of drained and defeated. While my family and my husband's family are totally different, we each have pretty funny tales of family folklore...never to be forgotten. Thanksgiving gives us the time to sit together and reminisce...and it is always interesting!
This year, it is at my house and I am trying to figure out how I'm going to get twenty something people in this house seated at a table. As we've grown older...the grandchildren are marrying off...or other dates are joining the crowd. This year, we broke the stranglehold on who is bringing what...as I had a moment of enlightenment that the "kids" are now on their own and somehow providing for their nourishment on a daily basis. So this year? The kids are cooking too!
I'm thankful that I have the problem of fitting too many people around my table...than too few. I'm also grateful that I have no truly heinous memories of turkeys splattered in rage on a driveway or words causing serious divisions in a family. Some people do. And while those stories make us laugh uncomfortably...they are very sad to taint a holiday and what is normally precious family time.
Enjoy your holiday. Eat turkey...and be sure to give your MeeMaw a hug. Help with the dishes, and try to overlook the elephants that might be at your family gathering. But if the po-po show up at your house...please so share...privately, of course...:)
How is it that everyone knows that the po-po is the police? My assistant from LA had to tell me that. And, if you're an Alabama fan AND a Republican, you can count on more elephants than you can shake a stick at.
ReplyDeletejust kidding.
i think.