Thanksgiving Morn…again….

The following is from three years ago today, give or take, as the calendar changes with its dates and days, but the sentiment here is the same, maybe even a little richer, though.  So much has changed in these three years…snow-covered mountains provide the backdrop instead of palm trees and bougainvillea…and all of my children will not be here…nor will other significant people from my life…but I still cherish them in their absence and think fondly of those memories from Thanksgivings gone-by…while hoping that today is full of its own wonderfulness again.  So much to be thankful for…including you, my blogging-friends….  Wishing you well today….

“It is Thanksgiving morning and I alone am awake in the house…well, me and the two cats, the one whining for her can of food and the other sitting there politely waiting for her few teaspoons of milk.  The smell is still in the house from the pecan pies that I baked last night and there are a couple pans still that have dried overnight on a towel on the counter by the coffee maker.  I’ve managed to make it down the creaking stairs without waking the little one and his eight years.  He told his mom the other day that now that he’s eight, he’s a man.  His sudden adultness hasn’t gone any further than that conversation, but it was strange or cute that it went there anyway.  The coffee-maker did its thing and the brown brew is sitting there waiting for me.  My fingers are slow as I work-out their night-time stiffness on these keys and slowly-forming words.

I haven’t stepped outside yet, but I will do so here in a few minutes, as I want to feel some sort of crispness in the air on a Thanksgiving Day that will reach temperatures in the high seventies to eighties.  Yes, we love the warmer temperatures in our Arizona winters and springs, but the holidays need to be laced with even a minimal amount of chilliness in order to have and bring the full emotional weight that they should or can possess.  I mentioned to my wife the other day that the media shouldn’t show holiday or Christmas commercials on TV that have snow-covered content or whatevers in our desert land…it just isn’t right.  They’re a tease to those of us who miss it and completely out of context for our holiday lives here with the sand and cacti and palm trees and shimmering pools in our backyards.

This is my quiet for the day and I won’t have it again until late in the night after everyone has gone home and the little one is put to bed.  All of our grown children will be coming over today, some several hours before the festivities begin and others as the day proceeds and when they get off of work.  The little ones will be and are here.  Mom and Dad are also coming up from Tucson, but they will likely arrive later in the afternoon for the four pm dinner.  Grandchildren and my children and the quiet will be vanquished to the extreme times.  Hopefully there won’t be any meltdowns or breakdowns or tantrums or overwhelming situations that raise the roof…hopefully.

And the kitchen will be my haven, my working and hiding place from whatever else goes on during the day.  Turkey and stuffing and ham and potatoes and corn and cranberries and yams and biscuits and beans and gravy and pies and and then….

I went outside to test my senses and feel the breaking day as I might and found it cool but not cold and quiet but not silent…there were a few lone drivers on the road whose tires spoke to the day and at least one dog who also had something to say…not telling any news but sharing that he too was awake…and someone’s heater kicked-in and the ringing was in my ears and shattering whatever might have been quieter…and someone was doing their laundry already at six-thirty, for the smell of fabric softener was in the air…and I spied someone’s newspaper lying in their driveway, so the paper-guy has already been through the neighborhood…maybe he got a later start today, or not…usually he zooms into and out of the cul-de-sac around four-forty or so…and he’s been here and gone…the leaves/fronds on the palm trees were still and the bougainvillea sat silently, not moving in the slightest…and the street light still shone as the sky was still too gray to turn it off.

And I am thankful today for my wife and children and their wives and children and my other family and friends and the good life that I have.  It seems that things and life are sometimes or often too tight or too busy or too mundane or too trying or too whatever and again…and today, my life is good…today is carefree with only the dinner schedule to maintain…let happiness reign.”

***This is a Favorite Re-post from November, 2009.

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