What Thanksgiving means to my family...

To our family, Thanksgiving means injury and illness. That's right... injury and illness. While we definitely do take time to say "thank you" for all of our wonderful blessings, I think next year we're all going to work, eating pizza for dinner and generally acting as if it's any other day. Perhaps we'll roast a turkey the day after or something.

Just to list a few, the Thanksgivings of years passed have included two gallbladder removals and something involved blocked intestines. This year my mom is sick to the point where she had no voice, I dropped a steel stand-mixer bowl on my foot breaking a toe and quite likely another bone in my foot, my sister-in-law's brother is on the brink of death in the hospital from congestive heart failure and I found out that my oldest niece has two ovarian tumors, one nearly the size of a lemon.

This morning my daughter is crying intermittently about a sore in her mouth by her cheek. My foot is a lovely shade of black and purple. My mom is hoping her doctor is open and will see her today.

Maybe all of my neighbors who have had their Christmas trees up for a week and outdoor lights on for a few days have the right idea. I've always gotten a little cranky about how, more and more, the North American society skips over Thanksgiving in a huge rush to get to Christmas. I, personally, refuse to give up pumpkins and turkeys and replace them with red bows and wreaths until at least Black Friday. When I do that, I feel like the "to do" list of Christmas totally gypped me an entire holiday. But given my family's health issues related to this one, I may opt to express my thanks to the universe sometime in July next year.

I'm off to get our Christmas decorations down from the attic. *sigh* Hubby is all ready to dive in. I still need a few days.