hopefully something rhetorical

For me, today isn’t Thanksgiving!    We have decided to hold off our Thanksgiving celebrations until the 6th of December.

Our good friend, Doug, has been in Iraq for the last 15 months.  He was supposed to be home to his family (my buddy Jen and their two adorable boys) the day before Thanksgiving, but as often does with this type of major movement, timelines don’t always work like you want them to.

We had been planning to share our Thanksgiving with them this year, particularly to give Jen a break from trying to cook a big dinner with Doug newly home.  So, Jen called me when she caught wind of what was going on because she wanted to let me know that plans might be minus one.  I, of course, just told her that we would hold off until Doug got home. I didn’t hesitate, and I knew the other people that were going to come wouldn’t have either.

This split second reminded me more than anything that Thanksgiving is about the people.  And, we can have Thanksgiving anytime we want to, whether or not the calendar agrees. Who knows, maybe I will start planning Thanksgiving meals throughout the year.  We need to celebrate each other and what we are grateful for more than one day a year in a carb-induced haze.

One year in a moment of self-absorbed stupidity, I talked to my wife on her birthday, and I didn’t even utter a happy!  I was mortified.   So much worse than not calling.  But, it has become something of a tradition that we have started celebrating unbirthdays.  So, maybe we need to celebrate thanks-again days!

So, I am excited about the dinner we have planned for the 6th!  It is will be our first thanks-again day in this next calendar year.  I will give you the low-down!