fake thanksgiving

We lived in Boston, MA for 3 years (well, 11 months of it on the south shore in Plymouth) but anyways, we would spend this newly created Holiday with Ted's Aunt, Uncle and cousins at their beach house in CT and it was called "fake thanksgiving". It was generally held a week or two prior to the real Thanksgiving and a way for people to all be together since getting everyone together on the actual Holiday can often be a challenge. We enjoyed it for a few years as we'd be flying back to MI for Christmas so we tended to not fly home for Thanksgiving. We enjoyed those memories with Ted's cousins, Aunt and Uncle. We were away from Family...our siblings and friends. They welcomed us into their family and made our families back at home feel better about us being away.

Two years ago, we started a little tradition of our own here in Cincinnati. We'd still come home on Thanksgiving but we had my parents and Aunt and Uncle (my Dad's Sister) here. I asked Mom to bring Justin this year- get him out of the house-he can have the upstairs, nah..he's going to stay home and take care of Brandy, he didn't want to come (that darn social anxiety)......Dad cooked and carved the turkey (here he was packing up the leftovers for us), Mom and I went shopping for the perfect tablecloth and place settings (yes, you've all heard this before- the tablecloth that my Dad spilled on and literally said, "you'll look at this and cry when I'm gone"- he was gone 5 months later- that kills me every time I think of that. WHY didn't I run over and hug him and say something to him about him one day being gone? I never thought he would be. ) Mom made her harvest cheesecake, and we told her over and over how wonderful it was. We all posed behind my dining room table and set the timer on the camera- Ted and I, Mom and Dad, and Aunt Diann and Uncle Randy...a few weeks later she framed that picture in a frame labeled "family" and mailed it to my Aunt.  She was thoughtful and loved when we all got together. 

The next year Mom and Dad were gone. Thankfully, my Aunt and Uncle still came. 

Now we have an even bigger gang coming to join in the fun. Well, first Elle is now here.....Christina, Matt and my nephew Aydan will come, my Aunt and Uncle will make the trip from Atlanta and Ted's parents are joining us. It will be a packed house but as my parents motto always was, "the more the merrier". Ted will cook. Believe or not, I could cook a turkey ya know. It's actually one of the easiest things to do now with the invention of the Reynolds cooking bags. But I don't like to cook and am still not ready. I know this sounds weird but every since my parents died, I can't do certain things. Other then Food network and maybe an hour here or there,  I haven't really watched TV in a year and 1/2 (Ted was gone for 4 days last week and I never turned it on). I can't watch scary movies now and refuse to watch sad ones, although on the flight to Europe I had no choice (I cried at the proposal- Sandra Bullock had no parents and balled Jennifer Garnier's new movie with Matthew M...as he had no parents either-they died too....what are the chances...two movies in a row). And my most favorite hobby....the gym. I haven't went to the gym since they died but once. I've been going most of my life. I luckily LOVE running and walking outside though and have kept that up. I tell myself one day, one day I can do the normal things without spending the entire activity thinking about what has happened. 

I'm so looking forward to a weekend with Family, to have my Sis make Mom's cheesecake, to share a bottle of wine with my Aunt and Uncle that they flew home from their recent trip to New Zealand and to have Elle spend time with her cousin and Gramma and Grampa. 

I'm thankful for all of them but this year like last year, I will be missing my Mom, Dad and now Grandfather. Everyday I continue to say, thank God for Elle. I am so thankful for her. 

And thanks to our family on the East Coast for creating this little fake Holiday that has turned into quite the tradition.....