It’s Thanksgiving Week, Or Real Life Intervenes

I’m gearing up to host the family dinner for Thanksgiving this week. We are very lucky to have a lot of family not too far away, many of whom continue to want to get together for the holidays. This year we will have 3 out of 5 original Salt children and their spouses and most of their children. Also a cousin of my husband’s and his family, and a couple of sisters of one of my sisters-in-law and their families. Even the college-age family members show up and bring friends. For this I am thankful (and somewhat amazed).

Although I will be serving a fresh turkey, it isn’t one of these.

I am also harried, as I try to organize and clean and count knives and forks, and make sure we have enough tables and chairs, etc. I always feel like others in the family do this more easily than I do (whether this is actually true is another question, but I think they all do). Then I remember that I grew up in a family that was removed geographically from any extended family, and we never had more than my parents and the 5 kids at the table for holidays. Wish I had a picture from then. I can only remember a single Thanksgiving when we had a guest, and that was a business associate of my father’s who was in town and couldn’t get home for the holiday. It was a very big deal.

And on Friday I met my sister for lunch and some walking and talking (which we do well), so I didn’t get any of my preparation tasks done. But I did get to go see the Penacook Town Pound in New Hampshire for myself. Also had a lovely walk on a gorgeous fall day. So I count that as a winning day. Town Pounds are something we discovered in western Massachusetts on one of our trips (I wrote briefly about that here) and I will write a post about in the future.

So the furniture moving and room-rearranging has begun and my house will not feel like itself until after the big day. I have to find a different place to sit to read the paper, my place at the table is relocated for the duration, and I am discombobulated. When I have the tables all in place and set I will take a picture of the result, so I can remember how it looked and what worked to create a single table that would seat 22 people. (I know this is not a huge number and that others do meals for many more. I am just used to doing it for 2 or maybe 4 or 6. So I get overwhelmed.)

It’s hard to complain about a wonderful 2-week vacation and then a Thanksgiving that includes many of our family being here for dinner. But I will. With everything else Life has given me, I haven’t had any time to myself to devote to my addiction genealogy – not even to cleaning up piles on my desk, let alone to doing any research. And that is really my only complaint. I can’t wait for Black Friday when I have the house to myself and can sit in front of my computer while the dishwasher and laundry run all by themselves.