Thanksgiving is here. Again. It comes every year, doesn’t it…
Here are the Top 5 Things Happening for Thanksgiving as far as I am concerned:
1. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.
I have already eaten way too many. The recipe is from my cookbook. I may have made them twice in one week. I share them with lots of people, and yes, I indulge. Because they are very fluffy and they are delicate and lovely. And made with 100% pure pumpkin. And chocolate chips.
2. Windy
I love blustery wind. I love when your lips get dry and you need extra lip stuff to keep them happy. I love the way the air looks when it’s windy out. The smog lifts and today, driving along Mulholland with my boys, I was honestly reminded of the glory of God as I saw the ocean lit up by the sun. It’s miles away from the road we were on, but it was that clear because of the wind. I love it. Thanks, God, for that little reminder of nature’s awesomeness because of the wind.
3. Ordering in.
My ex and I cooked everything Thanksgiving-y for Rosh Hashanah. It’s kind of our weird tradition, mixing up the harvest autumn holidays, as it were. I am still recovering and thus suggested we order in from a sort of gourmet vegan place for us and my folks and our boys. In all honesty, I love spending Thanksgiving with my ex mother-in-law and the boys and the ex in San Jose, but the ex has to be up bright and early the day after Thanksgiving for the final UCLA game of the season, so we stayed local this year.
4. Parade.
I must watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade. I love it. We watched it last year and my kids saw men in drag in tall “Kinky Boots.” Who knows what wonders the parade holds for us this year!?
5. Onward to Christmas.
Thanksgiving really just means, “Christmas,” right? I mean, all of the Christmas-celebrating folks pretend they like it, but really it’s just the holiday we have to get out of the way so that Christmas can happen. This means the beginning of myriad conversations with my sons about what Christmas is and what it’s not, why we don’t celebrate Christmas, and what it all means in the scope of the Universe.
There is so much to be thankful for. Here’s my partial list:
-Being vegan. I am thankful to have found an adult identity that doesn’t involve eating turkeys or any other animal or its byproduct. I know most people reading this aren’t vegan, but I am and I am happy to be.
-Being in a country with a relatively free press and sort of democracy. Say what you will–and I know you will–about this country, but we have rights many thousands in the world would die for. Literally.
-Abundance. Our country is so wealthy. My industry is stupid wealthy. There is plenty to go around, if we only can spread it around properly.
-Health. Sure, I’m not super healthy and not many people I know truly are. We age, we have problems, we have surgeries and stuff like that. But most of us can be thankful for medical necessities being available. Most of us are healthy.
-Perspective. Boy do I need perspective this year. Divorce forces you to make nice with perspective on a minute-to-minute basis. I am thankful for it.
-Honesty. I’ve really had my inventory taken, as they say, this year. It has not always been fun. It’s actually rarely been fun. Being humbled is obviously humbling. But I am grateful to have people who love me enough to tell me when I am wrong, self-seeking, and just plain needy. I would rather know now than go on repeating these things.
-Sense of humor. I don’t think of myself as funny, but I think it might be time. I can break tension with laughs. I can find humor in darkness. I sometimes need to stop trying to be funny, but a lot of the time, it helps relieve tension and I am grateful for it.
Happy Thanksgiving, whatever yours looks like. Onward to Hanukkah!
