Sweet enjoyment. A triumph, my dear, a triumph.
Great Thanksgiving. Keith, Emily, Craig, Karen. And of course the original source of all this greatness - Carol and Joe.
Massive meal (we're gonna need a bigger table). 100 pound turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, cranberry sauce (for me - I'm the only one that eats it), gravy, awesome sweet potato concoction and a pumpkin corn bread innovation courtesy of Emily.
Pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple crisp.
Conversation, laughter, revelations and contemplations. Football. Contented sloth and expanded stomachs. A dog and two reclusive cats.
Carol and I enjoy the gift of an honest family, loving and fun - no pretensions, no bullshit. It is a true joy and a celebration for us to enjoy their company in such a relaxed setting. They were tots, then there were not. They all have their own lives and perspectives and hopes and dreams and struggles and disappointments.
We get together as a family and there is love and respect and the soul deep reward that comes from blood connection.
Today is quiet and contemplative by way of contrast. Thanksgiving gone too fast but enjoyed to the max.
One major holiday down, two (or three depending on your perspective) to go. T-Day is the real one. Christmas is on deck. It's cool, it's fun, but there is stress involved and financial pressure and crazygonuts rushing around. I still dig it. I dig the strangeness of it. A tree in your living room. Lots of lights and colors and Christmas music. Packages wrapped in oddly festive paper. It is it's own fantasy world, kind of like being high without ingesting a drug.
New year's Eve and New Year's Day. Is that one holiday or two? I say two.
NYE is typically get stupid time. You get loaded to celebrate the relief of having survived another bizarre year of life and to carefully anticipate another year layered on to all those that came before. I have gotten drunk 10,000 times on NYE, but in my soul I always thought it was stupid. Makes more sense to me to celebrate the passing of time with reverence. But what the hell do I know? My station in life prevents my opinions from carrying great weight.
New Year's Day. A day to recover. A day to ease into a new year. A day to throw up. My birthday. I have always found it strange to know that 99% of the world is gobbling Advil and kneeling in supplication before the toilet on my birthday. And god knows I have been there myself many, many times.
Coming from an Italian family, a huge meal was always prepared on my birthday, many relatives in attendance. I would stagger out of bed, head pounding, stomach roiling and fake my way through the meal. What a shame. So many magnificent meals prepared by my mother that I did not enjoy.
Odd to me that all these celebrations are concentrated in a two month period. Blam, you are getting emotional and reflective and digging family and examining your life and engaging in insane escape and suddenly the new year is here and you are back to work in the coal mine with no holiday in sight for five months.
How bizarre, how bizarre.
But I'll dive in and wrestle what I can out of what is to come between today and 01/01/12. I'll get happy and I'll love and be grateful for my family. These holidays offer an escape from predictability and monotony and that is a special opportunity.
Yesterday blew by too fast. I dug my heals in but I could not slow it down. My brain has memories locked in of looking across the dinner table at the five magnificent people in attendance with awe. Even thought I have to work today (so do Keith and Craig) which sucks royally, I will take a few minutes here and there to draw on those mental images, and that will give me what I need to stumble through a day of obligation.
Bring on Christmas. Bring on NYE and NYD. Bring on my 58th birthday. I'm ready for all of you guys. Gonna make the most of it. Try to etch wrinkles in my face to approximate and remind me of the perpetual smile that will accentuate and express the fun and contentment.
2012 looms ahead and weighs heavy on my mind. But that is a topic for another time and another place.
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