Thanksgiving; Hosting vs Attending.

Everyone loves Thanksgiving! Turkey with gravy, stuffing, potatoes, squash and green bean casserole. The list goes on and on! Pies and desserts flood the tables and everyone just can’t wait to dig in! Family time with lots of laughs, countless stories from your grandparents about “the good old days” or “when you were a kid”. The stories that warm your heart or have you in tears laughing to the point where you can’t catch your breath. You see family, you miss family that’s not there, you talk about the years prior.

All of the best things about togetherness and family that you can think of, that’s Thanksgiving..

If you’re attending a Thanksgiving you highly anticipate great Aunt Anne’s Apple pie. Crossing your fingers and toes that you get your hands on Grandmas green bean casserole first because you love the crunchy onions on top before everyone mixes it all together. Planning that your seat will be next to the cousin you grew up with, sharing all of your secrets and staying up late with. The one you only see on Thanksgiving. All of the bubbly feelings that fill you as you drive over on the best Thursday of the year!

Then there’s hosting…

You spend hours on end being flustered about which sides to prepare, what’s trending for holiday centerpieces and praying that the day will all go smoothly as planned. You walk countless times up and down the isles checking your list not once, not twice but three plus times. The text messages, social media posts and phone calls seem never ending. Guest lists change because, well that’s just life. Unexpected events leading to the day push tasks off and flood other days with never ending things to do. Somehow all of this preparation and time that goes in, doesn’t seem to be the case on the other end.

After you have spent the day cooking and cleaning and preparing. Running to the store and sending your spouse out to get every last minute thing you forgot. After you cook the food and spend that time hoping everyone likes the new seasons on the turkey, hoping no one notices you definitely forgot cranberry sauce (even after all of the preparation) and jumping in on the conversations when you’re not overcome with questions of success or failure. After you clean up the plates, throw the trash out and pack up the leftovers. After you prepare the dessert table and repeat the same steps from before. After you clean up that mess. You go to sit down just to find out the men are outside smoking cigars and your family is already starting to leave… where did the day go?

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you attended or were the host. You were with family either way and that’s all that this day is suppose to be about.

To you and yours, I hope this holiday was everything it is suppose to be.