Pie In A Box

Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the house

The cat was sleeping on his little play mouse.

The kitchen was clean awaiting the mess

That would definitely be more before it was less.

Ahhh. Thanksgiving. The turkey is thawed; the pumpkin pie is in the freezer. The potatoes are ready to be peeled and boiled; the gravy is on stand-by in a jar. I like to mix my thanksgiving dinners up between the homemade and the ready-to-go. That's why I let Mrs. Smith bake the pie and pull the gravy from the cabinet.

The youngest asked me at supper what I did for Thanksgiving when I was a kid. "Went to Grandma's or Aunt Patty's, I suppose." The table got quiet.

I guess we were all thinking of Grandma's house. I thought of her today when I fixed up a card to send to my niece. One time Grandma sent me a sympathy card for my birthday. She had scratched out the sympathy part and wrote in birthday and laughed about it later. Her theory? Why buy a new card when you can make what you have work?

Or maybe we were thinking of Aunt Patty. You want a home where everybody is made to feel special? Go to Aunt Patty's. She never does anything halfway no matter if the meal is a holiday dinner or just burgers on the grill. And if the dessert she has planned is ice cream? It's a guarantee that every topping imaginable will be there.

I guess we are all trying not to think about the fact it will just be us tomorrow. I have to admit it gets kinda difficult (and annoying even to me) to act all cheerful like it's no big deal. It is a big deal, though, and we all know it. Blame it on Grandma and Aunt Patty. We just love those big family holiday dinners. Here, we have supper around the table every day. It's no big deal to sit down with the same five people you look at every night.. even if you dress it up with Grandma's china.

We will sit down together, though, and we will use the good china. Daddy will go on about how good everything is and I'll make everybody do the "What I Am Thankful For" speech. Afterward the kids will scatter and I'll sing along to Bryan Adams while I wash dishes. I'll talk to my parents across the miles and we'll eat leftovers for supper. Just another holiday dinner on our own.

And yet another reminder to be thankful. We may be a family of five who sits around the same table every night looking at each other, but we're still a family of five sitting at the table (if that makes any sense). My dad reminded me on the phone just this morning to enjoy every moment of those kids while they are here. I'm thinking he knows what he's talking about.

So you can bet I'll be up early in the morning with a big smile on my face forcing everyone to be happy. It's a holiday for crying out loud! I'll take the pie out of the box and microwave my jar of gravy. Somewhere in the midst of it all, the forced smiles will fade and real ones will appear. We are a family, after all, and we are together. That's five reasons enough to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night!