The holidays have officially arrived. It all starts with Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays. It is a great holiday because it revolves around the 3 "F's": Family, Food, and Football. Really, in my opinion, it is the perfect holiday. A holiday so perfect that it is almost immune to the ruining power of children. Almost. You know what I am talking about. Kids have this insane ability to find a way to ruin everything, whether it's furniture, your meal that you're cooking, or just a night out. Somehow, some way, they will ruin it for you. Most of the time, well, some of the time, they don't even mean to do it. For example, when my wife and I planned a night out one time, which for us takes some planning, and my youngest woke up the morning of the date and threw up. Not her fault, she didn't do it on purpose, but the night out was ruined. It is such a strong power that kids don't even have to try, they just do it.
Holidays are not normally immune. Let me give you some examples:
- 4th of July: Normally ruined by the youngest child who has been up all day, in the sun, running around eating all the junk food they can find, and they now refuse to go to sleep because there is too much going on. They need to sleep, however, because they are exhibiting behaviors that would make Oscar the Grouch look like a happy guy. All of this, of course, is just in time for the fireworks show you have been waiting to see all day.
- Halloween: You spend all day on Halloween doing things that revolve around your kids. You go to their school to see their parade and help out in their classroom for their party and then after school, you help them get their costumes back on and take them from door to door to get candy, and all of this is great until they come crashing down from that sugar high and it's time for bed. They stay up late, and then punish you the next day by finding their candy at 5 am, eating it and begin bouncing off the walls after they kept you up late.
- Christmas: Early Morning + Lots of new Presents+ Tons of candy in the stockings + over stimulation all day long + more candy and sweets from Grandpa who just can't say no to his grandkids = Nightmare by 6 pm.
Somehow, Thanksgiving seems to be the one exception, or at least I foolishly think each year. This year, however, it really was. Somehow, my kids made it through the meal behaving pretty well. They even sat at the table with us and ate, which never happens the rest of the year. My oldest even got excited about the football, for the first time ever on Thanksgiving. It was a strange experience. Most of the time in these settings my wife and I spend most of the time chasing the kids around, trying to round them up. It usually looks like a circus to everyone else, but it feels like trying to wrangle cats to us. Usually the kids are fighting about some dumb thing or another. Sometimes, and I really believe this, they are fighting just to fight.
But, somehow, this year was different. We all sat down together and ate our meal, almost like civilized people. As we sat there, and I looked around at each of them, it was a sweet moment as a parent. I mean, this wasn't a Norman Rockwell painting or anything. My oldest had his plate piled with his Thanksgiving feast: 2 rolls, my daughter had all the varieties of Jell-O salad on her plate and one small piece of turkey, my son Jak only had turkey and was going on about some PokeMon something, my second youngest was making multiple trips to the food for more of whatever she could reach, and my youngest was wearing more of the sweet potatoes than she had in her mouth, but we were all together, and happy. For me, it was the perfect picture. I felt something new this Thanksgiving: Gratitude. I was grateful for my young little family and for how much they had each grown this year and just how great each one is. I wasn't worried about the football game, or having seconds on the food. The only "F" that mattered was family, and I felt blessed to have mine. If only we had a holiday somewhere where there were no distractions, it was just an opportunity to be grateful for what we have. That would be awesome. We should do it June. June only has Flag Day. It could use a big holiday like this.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, from my family to yours!
So sweet!!!!!! Love your little family.
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