I love Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday. Don't get me wrong...I adore Christmas, but there's just something about Thanksgiving. It's peaceful and relaxing. The calm before the storm I suppose. For me, it's sweet time with family. Of course, GOOD food. I LOOOOVE pecan pie. It's not Thanksgiving without pecan pie. Thanksgiving is a time of thoughtful reflection. It's giving thanks for blessings. It's thinking about the year before and having another with friends and family. It's embracing the past and looking forward to our future.
It's also all about homemade dressing, honey ham, turkey, hash brown casserole and whatever other delicious goodies family makes. Did I mention my mom's speciality? PUMPKIN ROLL!!!!! Oh. My. GOODNESS. I basically eat myself silly with that stuff.
I'm also one of those people who shun everything Christmas until Thanksgiving is over. I just feel as though I need to protect Thanksgiivng. It seems to get looked over with all of Christmas' glory.
But holidays lately are difficult for Stewart and I. Even though we may be making progress in dealing with it all, pretty much any holiday digs into our infertility scars and hurts us. It's yet another reminder that we haven't been successful in starting a family.
It's cruel and it's unfair.
It's hard.
It's hard being around your relatives and their small children watching them enjoy all the fun.
It's hard being on the outside looking in. Feeling like you're not really a part of things. Like you're living on the fringes.
It's hard watching the kids being counted so they can draw names to exchange Christmas gifts for one another.
It's hard seeing CUTE little holiday outfits on the girls knowing I may never get to order something like that with a name embroidered on it.
So, I just watch. Mostly try to turn away. I try not to seem rude, but I just don't play with the kids. I watch them run around with all their cousins. And I'm sad because it's just one more year we're childless. One more year with all the other kids growing and getting older and we just continue to stay in the same place.
This year, as we do most years, we spend the actual day with Stewart's parents, his brother Jason and his family. It's always a good time with good food and visiting and getting caught up.
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| Mary's famous (& delicious cheese-ball), my Buffalo Chicken Dip, & Carrie made Crap Dip in the crock-pot. Yes, We enjoy our food! |
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| Stewart's mom, Mary, made delicious ham, chicken, dressing, homemade rolls and several other goodies. |
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| Mary and I being silly in the kitchen |
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| Our cozy Thanksgiving table |
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| Me and Stewart |
We were all so busy eating, laughing and talking about what was going to happen next on The Walking Dead, I forgot to try to get a family picture of all of us. I was going to say at least I got a picture of everyone on here, but I realized there isn't on of the Patriarch...Joe! Sorry Papa Joe...I LOVE YOU!!! We'll do better at Christmas!
Next, is Brewer Thanksgiving in Huntington, Tn with my mom's brothers and sisters(there are 7 of them), all my cousins and our families. One brother and his family and one cousin and her family were not there. We still probably had about 40 folks there. Everyone brings a dish (or 2) and we eat our hearts out.
This is the dessert table. Notice the TWO pecan pies there? And yes, I had a piece of each. And yes, they were BOTH delicious. I have to also mention that chocolate pie....holy cow!! My Granny would always make one for me when we would visit and none have EVER been able to compare. But this one, came mighty close!
Here is our Thanksgiving Family picture 2013. It's a little blurry, but it's the best one we could get. We had to take a BUNCH. My sweet, little cousin Brady decided he wanted to be in the picture. So we took one with him. But then he decided to show us his awesome photo bomb skills....we were laughing like crazy.
I had to get a picture of Maude and Wyatt in here...can't leave the babies out. Notice those pretty little pillows they're making themselves comfortable on? Those pillows were NOT to become dog beds when I bought them. But, I figured since it's Thanksgiving, I'd let them relax just this once.
It's time for me to eat breakfast having see a plethora of pictures about food! On a serious note, well, you may not have a child...yet, but you have a great marriage, friends, and family. Some people don't even have 1/3 of that. It does not ease the pain of desiring to give life, but God smiled on you in so many ways. And, you're already a mom in so many ways. There's one or more students in your class who look at you and wish their mothers were like you, and they probably daydream every time they come to class that after class is over, you take them home and treat them like they exist. That's a very privileged position, my friend.
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