Yeah, it's been a while... a long while. My last post was from when my niece was born. In the meantime I have been to Germany, met my niece, and I love her like mad already. We are done with our first term at Village Home, and now have a seven week break, and I have written 30,000 words of a novel as part of National Novel Writing Month.
Thanksgiving this year will be at my house. And Shady Lady and Princess are going to join us for it. Yay! :)
Thanksgiving is not a holiday we celebrated in Germany, and when I just moved to America it didn't mean much to me at all. As a matter of fact, for the first 6.5 years that I lived in Arizona, Thanksgiving was always a bit of a drag. Don't get me wrong, I loved being with the in-laws, have a big family get-together and all. But, and this was a bit of a downer, I never liked their food. I hated the stuffing, wasn't in love with the turkey, really really did not like the thick gooey gravy, and could never warm up to pumpkin pie. I don't like the taste of pumpkin, and then there is this texture issue... Every year I'd ask my in-laws what I could bring to Thanksgiving. Of course everyone in the family already had their traditional dishes and side dishes they were bringing. And so, to be nice to the German intruder, I was given small assignments like salad... and one year even red cabbage. In the beginning I brought a traditional German cake. Well, as it turns out, they didn't like MY food either. They ate all of theirs and didn't touch mine. I think I finally gave up asking in my 5th year. There was no use. Thanksgiving was not my holiday, and I was never going to make the right thing. So why bother?
Of course then we moved to Oregon, and when my friend HerbiFaery invited me to Thanksgiving I gladly accepted. What else was I going to do? Thanksgiving wasn't MY holiday after all. It was a lovely day at HerbiFaery's house with her family... but still I felt like an intruder. It didn't feel quite right. And so last year I decided we were staying home. Thanksgiving was celebrated just by us, Ogre, Toothless Fairy, Blue Eyed Boy and myself. We ate roasted turkey, delicious Such Lovely Freckles gravy, beans, and mashed potatoes. Ogre made a pumpkin pie, that I didn't eat. He also made sweet potatoes with marshmallows, which absolutely cannot and will not eat. Potatoes and marshmallows... I mean, come on, really??? :-) Well, either way, it was a good day, and most importantly, it was MINE. Thanksgiving was MY holiday at last.
Today, Shady Lady will bring the cranberries and sweet potatoes with marshmallows. Ogre will roast the turkey, and I will make the beans, the mashed potatoes and the gravy. No stuffing! I will make pumpkin pie for them, and apple pie for me. And something tells me it will be a wonderful day.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there. I hope that your Thanksgiving can be truly YOURS, the way that MINE is MINE. I am extremely grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life.
