Two meltdowns and a 22 lb turkey

A mess of some of the Thanksgiving things

I’ll be honest, this was not a gratitude-ful Thanksgiving.  The holiday season’s stress typically doesn’t overwhelm me as I pre-plan and then plan, plan, and plan.  But this year, the holidays fall smack dab in the middle of a big project at work, and time and energy have gotten away from me.  The Thanksgiving holiday hit me in the face with the weight of a thousand suns.  Which is to say that it made no sense and was overwhelming all at the same time.  For Thanksgiving, in addition to working on what I thought would be days off, my mom also over-invited guests at the last minute (Thanksgiving Tradition #1).  Since dad and I cook Thanksgiving dinner (Thanksgiving Tradition #2), this added an extra layer of “excitement” that wasn’t anticipated.  I most certainly blew up at that news and then melted down a few more times before the actual day of Thanksgiving.

However, as lacking of gratitude and thanks as I felt last week, hindsight has reached up to smack me on the head.  So I’m now playing catch up with my emotions (and Christmas shopping).

My Belated Gratitude List 2017:  I am thankful for...

Bryan, who sat through rush hour traffic to pick me up from the airport on Friday evening and watched me dissolve into a puddle of misery at the thought of all the work ahead of me, much less the prepping, cooking, shopping, and organizing that would go into Thanksgiving Day.  He helped me with all of the grocery shopping, held his tongue as I manhandled his giant farm truck through the tiniest of Trader Joe parking lots, clipping a few curbs and flipping a few birds.  He smoked the 22 lb turkey on Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving Tradition #3) on his own, hauling his smoker up to my parents’ house - all with a smile on his face.  After dinner, he helped my mom do the dishes and took me out for brunch the next morning.  For all of that (and more), I am truly lucky.

My sister and her boyfriend, who took over dessert-making for the second year in a row (Thanksgiving Tradition #4) and outdid themselves with their pie decorations.  They both have more patience than I could ever have, carefully shaping crusts into the wee hours of the morning.  They also brought their fancy camera over the the barn one evening, and we got some action shots of Miss Mae zooming around the arena.  I’m excited about sharing them so stay tuned!

Bryan’s mom who sent over three loaves of bread from Zingerman’s Bakehouse in Ann Arbor.  They saved me from baking the morning of Thanksgiving Day and allowed us to be gracious hosts to our early arrival guests.  The fact that the bread was delightfully delicious was an added bonus.

My aunt who brought over homemade kimchi and bulgogi, kicking off a new family tradition of extending our fusion Thanksgiving dinners into the Korean arena.

And basically anyone that listened to my whinging over the last two weeks, thank you.  There are a lot of you out there and you’ve helped me hang on to my sanity.  Until Christmas hits...