Thursday, November 22, 2007

How Thanksgiving is testing my strength

I am once again going to my mother-in-law's house for Thanksgiving dinner.

I used to host dinner at my house. My sister Amy would come with her husband Paul, my sister Martha would come, and sometimes another guest or two would join us.

This occasion has been blogged about before on my Travel Blog. I love Thanksgiving. Mostly because of the food. I love my menu for Thanksgiving, and I love my cooking. When Amy moved to Las Vegas, I decided it was too much trouble to cook Thanksgiving for only five people. (Also, Amy's contribution was always the world's best broccoli casserole, so it wasn't much of a Thanksgiving without that dish.)

One year we tried eating in a restaurant, which was a horrific and sad excuse for a holiday.

I can't even remember what we did in 2005. But it was probably even more horrific and sad, and I've blocked it out of my memory.

Last year we decided to join our mother-in-law at her fest.

Louise has a different take on Thanksgiving than I do. She's not all about homemade. And she's not faithful to a bunch of specific, fabulous recipes that have been passed down through the years to the point that it just isn't Thanksgiving without those foods in attendance.

So, OK, different menu. It's still better than eating in a restaurant.

I am trying really hard to deal with it.

But here's the thing: Whether it was Christmas, Mother's Day, or Thanksgiving, any day that I spent at Louise's was always accompanied by the fact that whenever I needed an escape, I could always go outside and smoke.

Always.

I could go outside. And smoke.

And no one would go outside to hang out with me, because they all hated smoke, anyway.

Now, no one is going to stop and think, "Hey, Bay isn't smoking any more -- doesn't that make her more good, virtuous and perfect like us?" Nope.

And I no longer have a built-in escape route. If I want to go outside, I'll have to just say, "Uhhhh... I think I'll go see what kind of birds are hanging out in... the... bare trees..."

Next year, I'm doing Thanksgiving for five people. If my daughter moves away and doesn't come home, I'll do Thanksgiving for four people. If my son leaves on a ski trip, I'll do Thanksgiving for three people.

Whatever it takes.

Because I no longer have an excuse to step outside of my mother-in-law's house.

This is, like, the first time since I quit smoking that part of me kind of wishes I could still light up a cigarette now and then. Mostly my cravings to smoke are for stupid reasons like, "I always smoked at this time of day." But seriously, smoking to get away from the madding crowd -- that was a good excuse, wasn't it?

Oh, well. I'll take some gum with me. And bird seed. Maybe I'll see a black-capped chickadee. I haven't seen one of those since... uh, last year.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand the smoking escape route because I used it many, many times. Tom and I do our own holidays here alone together, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Today we laughed because I said I cooked for two. Two armies. I cooked for about 5 hours last night, another 5 hours today, just for us, the traditionals he wanted (even if they are from boxes and cans) and some new stuff, but no matter what, it was our way of doing things. Something to be said for that. Oh, and the whole time I cooked and after dinner I would have given anything to have a smoke - well, anything except give up all the work I've put into it. No clue why the urges have been visiting, but they are. So I ate an obscene amount of ham (doing it our way), some of my own broccoli casserole (wonder if Amy's is different?) and lots of others, and I made it. Now I'm over here rambling. Sorry. Just tumbled out. Happy Thanksgiving anyway ;)

Tasina said...

Bay - I hope that despite everything you did manage to have a good Thanksgiving. Maybe what you can do when you need to step out is hum a little Adam Ant song to yourself ;)

Anonymous said...

Bay, take your camera and use the excuse of wanting to go outside and take some photgraphs of the bare naked trees (or the budding trees or the leafed out trees depending on the season)

I've even taken the paper with me and gone into a quiet room with the excuse of needing to check out the adds and make a game plan for the next day.