Celebrate Real Well

I plan on making the most of this Thanksgiving. It's the one holiday where there really isn't all that much stress. No costumes. No gifts. No cards, church obligations, or pictures with Santa or the Easter Bunny. There's the cooking... but Thanksgiving is usually not my holiday to cook. My Director and I are in charge of Christmas Eve. Even though we are hosting Thanksgiving this year as well, there's not much to preparing a turkey, some stuffing, and popping it in the oven for a few hours. Our guests will fill in the blanks.



Cooking aside, Thursday is just a day for me to be with some good people, take in the parade and be thrilled when Santa shows up, eat some good food, watch and play some football, relax and enjoy.

This is the fifth straight Thanksgiving on which I don't have to work. Since I work in television news, it's rare to get any holidays off. Thanksgiving was always the one that I volunteered to work, in order to make sure I had off on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

"I'm fine," I'd always say to My Director. "They feed us a nice dinner anyway."

Still, I would have rather been wherever my family was. Now, I have a job - in financial news - that gives me the big holidays off automatically. I am thankful for that. So very thankful. We've lost some family members over the past few years... unexpectedly. Too soon. So Thanksgiving isn't guaranteed. Let alone next Thanksgiving. That's why I hope to put the drama, the squabbles, my neuroses, and any hard feelings aside. As best I can. Sometimes it's difficult when you're sequestered inside a house with your family with nothing but a table full of tryptophan separating you.

Then again, nearly my entire immediate family lives about a mile from neighborhoods that were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. So I am thankful they are still here to have a Thanksgiving. And they are too.

I have so much to be thankful for. My amazing, beautiful, loyal wife. A healthy, happy, exuberant daughter. A comfortable home and a good job during a time where those things are also not a guarantee. Family. Friends. You fine people who take the time to read the thoughts I choose to write about. Health. Humor. Freedom. My ridiculous, furry little dog who makes me smile just by being there. The list could go on.

A song comes to mind that has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but also everything to do with it. I was walking to work one morning and it come on while I was listening to my iPod on shuffle. It's called "Two Step" by The Dave Matthews Band. A song that reminds me of good times in college. Now it will forever remind me of every Thanksgiving  thanks to these lyrics:

"Celebrate real well because life is short but sweet for certain."