Breaking a Recent Day Holiday Tradition

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite Holiday! I love the food, the Fall, the fellowship, and the football! I start in the kitchen the night before and wake up early to get that bird fired up! I just love this time of the year and I have so much to be thankful for even though many times I forget!

So a few weeks ago when I posted an open request for topics to write about and a reader suggested “…being single for the Holidays”, I knew that I had something to speak on. For the last 6 years, I have been cooking the entire thanksgiving feast for my mother and me. I have a small family and most of them are out of town. Since my college years my mom and I have decided to keep this holiday rather intimate. But, for the last 3 years in a row, I have been involved with some dude in the autumn season, be it serious or semi-serious, and I have invited them for each of the last 3 dinners. My mom has been gracious but in retrospect, I am sure she would have preferred for it to be just us.

Well, this year my mom will get the mother-daughter time she desires! It will be just us! Because even though I am currently dating, I have decided that I do not want my mother to meet anymore men that I’m not sure will be around for the next Thanksgiving or holiday period for that matter! Holidays are special and should be reserved for special people! I put a lot of effort and love it the food and the overall entertaining for thanksgiving and only people who are committed to being in my life for more than just a season should experience this day with me and the person I love most in this world, my mother.

As I think back on the Thanksgivings I have shared with others, it has hardly fit the fantasy I have. When I think of a happy life, I think of Thanksgiving Day! I have a Down Home with the Neely’s type vision with my hunny and I prepping the food the night before drinking wine and sampling the desserts! Waking up early the next day, cooking breakfast for my husband and kids and then waiting for other family to come over! The ladies cooking and chatting in the kitchen, the kids playing outside, and the men watching football in the den! And every now and then my hubby comes into the kitchen stealing kisses and picking at the food as I swat him away! This is what I long and I have been silly to try and create some of that fantasy with my previous dinner guests! They have not been up to task and the results usually consists of my guy being glued to the TV, never getting up to come into the kitchen to see if I need anything, me cooking extra side dishes to please his picky eating taste, and my mom forgetting his name by Christmas!

So not this year! This year, I will be comfortable, not try to impress because my momma already knows I can throw down in the kitchen because, well, she taught me! I will hold onto my fantasy of sharing Thanksgiving with the loves of my life! Right now, no man in my life holds that spot! So while he is free to come over and help me indulge in some leftovers, I am saving the actual date for those that really love me and plan to share and be thankful with me for years to come!

Happy Thanksgiving All! I hope you are blessed to spend it with those you love!

Thank you for taking this journey with me!

—The S.B.