Thanksgiving woes originally published November 11, 2008, on DC Metro Moms.
Now that the election has passed, we return to our regularly scheduled November programming. For my family, this means birthdays and Thanksgiving. Bito and Cupcake celebrate birthdays within six days of each other this month, which makes for some grand planning and work. Once those celebrations have passed, Thanksgiving is upon us.
We haven’t yet established yearly traditions for Thanksgiving in our family. Christmas is my deal breaker and I’ve remained firm on how and where we celebrate that. Thanksgiving, however, is a holiday I am open to negotiating. Nice of me, right?
Our two options are to either travel to Michigan to be with The Husband’s extended family, or to stay here and make our own merriment. Neither choice is ideal. Add to this the fact that The Husband waffles on what we should do, and you have a family who doesn’t make a decision until mid-November at best.
Traveling to Michigan means a very, very long car trip (not deciding until mid-November makes reasonable airfare impossible). Three kids in the minivan for many hours–even with the DVD player going–is a special kind of hell. And of course, we leave town the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, when the rest of the known world is traveling. This lengthens our trip by several hours. Did I mention it’s a very, very long car trip? The last time we went, we arrived in Michigan on Thanksgiving Day at five in the morning. It was tough to enjoy dinner with the entire family while in a sleep deprived haze.
The past couple of years, we’ve chosen to stay in town and make our own Thanksgiving feast. We’ve invited others over to our home, but haven’t had any guests join us. We find most people leave town or spend it with their own families—imagine that. Hence our Thanksgivings here, with just the The Husband, me and the kids, have been rather lonely. Last year I cried because I long for a festive, happy atmosphere filled with family and friends.
So The Husband and I are discussing it again now that November is here…and we’re still drawing a blank. We have a few days before it’s officially mid-November.
Original DC Metro Moms post. Michelle blogs about holidays, friends, family and other woes at Wife and Mommy!
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Note: This post is re-posted here with permission from Silicon Valley Moms Group upon the announcement of their dissolution.
