OUR Traditional (but very un-traditional) Thanksgiving Tradition

Happy Thanksgiving 2012!

As has been the case for several years now, Mark is either just returning from an Africa trip right before Thanksgiving or just leaving for an Africa trip the day after Thanksgiving.

From this drunken-look photo, it's pretty obvious that Mark had just returned from a 3-week Africa trip and was suffering through jetlag.  AND, based on the lack of decorations or nice place settings, it's also even MORE obvious that Mark had just returned, and that I was too blimey exhausted to do anything special.  I feel compelled (meaning, my mom called me and chewed me out) to mention, however, that my mom was here for a long visit while Mark was gone and helped me out *immensely*. THANK YOU, MOM. So, truth be told, basically, I didn't do anything special for Thanksgiving because I'm basically a lazy schmuck.

Anyway, this travel schedule always means that I want as low-key a Thanksgiving holiday as possible - to either rest up & prepare for an upcoming long stretch of single parenthood, or to recover from a grueling long stretch of single parenthood that I just survived.  This typically means NO trips and usually NO company.   Oh, and again as evidenced by the photo, pajamas all day are a must - so NO clothes, either.  And I know it might be kinda rude and I absolutely don't mean to be, but I also typically turn down any invitations we receive to go to someone else's house - I just can't deal with clothes and belts and makeup and hoopla on Thanksgiving.  We're basically tired and smelly grubs in elastic pajama pants on Thanksgiving and you wouldn't want us over anyway, I promise.

Another Thanksgiving "issue" is that I don't particularly like ANY traditional Thanksgiving food (don't like turkey, don't like cranberries, don't like stuffing, don't like pie, and especially don't like sweet potatoes), so OUR particular traditional Thanksgiving consists of making everyone's favorite foods and then sharing the yummy smorgasboard.  It doesn't vary much from year to year, though I was surprised that Spongebob macaroni & cheese was NOT invited to our Thanksgiving this year - that's been on either Noah's or Shelby's menu wishlist for years.  Anyway, here's the lineup:

• Mark's most-thankful for foods:  Barbeque ribs
• My most-thankful for foods:  Diet Coke & Angie Bailey's special sauce wings (I believe this is 4 or 5 years in a row now for these??  They also make appearances for every Mothers Day and every birthday.)
• Connor's most-thankful for foods:  Pasta and ribs and pumpkin pie
• Noah's most-thankful for foods:  Fruit salad and french fries
• Shelby's most-thankful for foods:  Blueberry pancakes and french fries

~*~*~*~

We started a new tradition this year, instead of writing in our family's gratitude journal, that we'd write on gratitude leaves - thank you, Pinterest (your recipes basically suck but this crafty idea was a hit...sort of).   Anyway, some notable items for which we, the Ritchie family, were thankful:

• Sumo wrestlers
• James Bond
• Tylenol
• Mustaches
• And Diet Coke may have shown up more than once.  Or twice.  Or a dozen.  (Don't forget, Mark was gone for the entire Gratitude Wreath project and Diet Coke is seriously all that gets me through single parenthood).  

This SEEMED like a good idea....until the kids started to fight over who got what color leaf, who got to write, who got to pin, who got to write "Grandma" for the day, what COLOR pin for their leaf.... seriously.  I wanted to stick the pins in my eyes and ears and will be OH-SO-THANKFUL when I can document this lovely craft for our eternal family memories (hmmmfpph!) ...and then THROW IT OUT.  Don't count on it making it into our Thanksgiving traditions next year, folks.

I mentioned that we share our favorite foods, but I'm very thankful no one in my family likes spicy foods, so I get to enjoy ALL those yummy wings ALL by myself and don't have to share.  And Mark and I  have 4 weeks of Walking Dead episodes to catch up on now that he's home, and nothing says Happy Thanksgiving like a TV zombie apocalypse marathon, right?  So, Happy Thanksgiving to me after all.  :)