Thanksgiving is a day for everyone to be thankful for what they have. Having a big family to share it with makes every year one for the books and only adds to the many reasons to be thankful. When you have a big Thanksgiving, there are some things you can always count on.
There are multiple types of potatoes.
When your family is as big as mine, so is their hunger for potatoes, all kinds of potatoes. Someone brings the mashed, someone brings the sweet, and someone brings the ones with marshmallows. With Thanksgiving with a big family, there are potatoes for days. Literally.
You pick a spot and stick to it.
Either before or after dinner, if you find a spot in the house where you can actually breathe and are at least 2 inches away from the nearest family member, you hold onto it, especially if you were lucky enough to snag the last spot of the couch.
There’s always some sort of announcement.
Marriages, babies, new houses, new jobs, retirement. With that many people, there is always some sort of special announcement that happens during the night.
And someone always cries (many times because of this announcement).
Might be happy cries, sad cries, laughter cries, exhausted cries, “I ate too much” cries, screaming child cries, you name it. No matter what kind of cry it is, there is always some sort of crying going on at Thanksgiving.
You have to get a half an hour warning before its time to eat.
Because it takes at least a half an hour to round up all the troops to settle down for dinner.
Going around the table saying what you’re thankful for is nearly an impossible task.
First of all, it takes forever. Plus, it’s impossible to keep a room filled with that many people quiet long enough for everyone to express their thanks. Also, how can you choose what to be thankful for? There are already so many things, in that room alone, that you are thankful for.
When the food finally gets to you, you know you are truly blessed.
Somehow you always end up sitting at the wrong end of the table and are the last person to get the turkey. But ,by the time it gets to you who even cares how long you waited, it is here now, and in that moment, that's all that matters.
The house ultimately looks like a war zone when the night is over.
Bodies laying all over the floor watching a Christmas movie, food and debris all over the place, piles of dishes, a plethora of wine stains; a combination of a scene out of your mother’s worst nightmare and best dream all packed into one. If the house isn’t a mess, the night wasn’t successful.
You wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
It may have taken hours to get food, say our thanks, eat and clean up, but you wouldn’t have it any other way. What’s Thanksgiving without laughter, tears and stories for other years?
Happy Thanksgiving!
