In keeping with the Thanksgiving tradition, here is Sharon Randall's column about making this the best Thanksgiving ever!
"Thanks in the dining room and in the heart…
"We're having Thanksgiving dinner at home
again this year, I guess I can't complain. Three turkeys in 28 years of
marriage doesn't exactly make me a martyr.
The first time I hosted the annual family feeding
frenzy was so long ago I can barely recall it now. Except when I hear a smoke
alarm; then I recall it clear as a bell.
My family remembers it too, it seems, because
since then we've had Thanksgiving dinner anywhere but here. However, last year
things changed. Funny, isn't it? We like to think that family is a constant, a
kind of rock that never changes. But even rocks can change, given enough time,
enough pressure.
Families change too, over time and under
pressure. They recreate themselves every day. A birth, a death, a marriage, a
divorce, a move to a new city. The changes may be good or bad; makes no
difference, really. What matter is what we do with them.
It's good to remember where we were and where we
came from. But it's better to know who we are and where we're going. We need to
talk less about how things used to be and more about how they are.
We did that last year, my husband and I and our
three grown children. We took a long look at our family and decided that the
traditions that had served us so well for so long no longer seemed to fit.
It had been a rugged year, dealing with a series
of blows that struck us individually and as a family. My mother died. My
father-in-law had to be placed in a rest home. And my husband had yet another
surgery for cancer, only to be told a few months later that the disease had
spread to his liver.
So when it came time to plan Thanksgiving dinner
we took a family vote and I lost - four to one - meaning I had to stay home and
cook. It wasn't bad, really. We invited some friends - who are like family,
except they help - and I had no trouble with the turkey, after I figured out
which end to stuff.
We all said, 'Best Thanksgiving ever."
Nobody said, "best turkey ever," but I take compliments where I can
get them. So we're doing it again this year. We invited the same friends and
they accepted. I took that as a compliment, too. And my sister is coming from
South Carolina. Her children are grown and if she stayed home they'd expect her
to cook, she said. I'll wait until she gets off the plane to tell her my plan.
On Thanksgiving Day, while she wrestles with the
turkey I will set two tables - one in the dining room and one in my heart. And
I will serve, in fact or spirit, all the people I've known and loved. No, I
won't be feeding them, but I will be thankful for them. It will be my best
Thanksgiving ever. Because now is the only one I've got.
Who can say what another year will bring? I wish
you your best Thanksgiving ever. It's the only one that counts."
