Giving Thanks ~ NaBloPoMo ~ November 19

Thanksgiving was always a big deal at our house growing up.  The holidays were the only times of the year that we could put our guards down and enjoy ourselves.  Usually my father's family (uncles, aunts, cousins, grandmother) would travel to our house for dinner and the week before Thanksgiving was always a busy time for my mother, sister and I.  We'd clean the house top to bottom and I could lose myself in the sound of the vacuum and the accompanying holiday music my mother would put on her record player. 

 

It was my job to make the table look pretty for the guests..using the special plates, glasses and candles while my mother sang along to the music in the kitchen making the pies and stuffing and bread.  It was also my job to dust all of the wood furniture in the house...to this day, I can't stand the smell of lemon because of the long hours of inhaling Lemon Pledge on my hands and knees. ;)

 

Then the family would arrive and the wine would start to flow, putting my parents in even better moods.  It was during those moments that I felt "normal".  This was how it was supposed to be all the time.  I wish it had been.