Thanksgiving 2012

This year's was the first Thanksgiving I'd ever spent alone.  As I did last year, I volunteered to work this Thanksgiving so that I can instead have off Christmas, and Mike left town early Thursday morning to spend the holiday weekend with his family.  Friday afternoon found me catching up on sleep with Stuffed in bed beside me while the slow cooker worked its magic and later waking to finish cooking, still in my pajamas. 

I had treated myself to a $4 bundle of salmon-pink Roses and frosted and decorated a single carrot muffin--my first sugar in a month--for dessert.  After pouring my iced tea and taking these few photos, I treated Stuffed to a can of wet food, like Lisa did for her cats last Thursday, ♥ and even let him eat at the table for the very first time.  It was Friday night, then, when I finally sat down to enjoy a simple celebration of food and flowers--and a sweet fluff-ball of a dinner companion who always appreciates the good things in life--and to say thank you, again, for everything.

Thanksgiving, I reflected while dining alone (after Stuffed had hopped down from the table and curled up on the floor again), is just pausing to think about all that you have--and all that you have had--and being grateful for it.  To miss eating a bigger meal only meant that I'd been blessed by a finer meal before.  To wish I were with my husband and family only showed that I am lucky enough to love and be loved.  And to feel nostalgic for all the Thanksgivings spent sitting at the kids' table at Papa and Grandma's house only proved that Thanksgivings huge enough to require kids' tables and hosted by happy grandparents are for me, not fantasies but memories. 

Thanksgiving, I was reminded this year, isn't only a "real" Thanksgiving when one is enjoying a full plate or full home. Thanksgiving happens anytime one says thank you with a full heart.  That's all.  And that's everything.