Giving Thanks

December is upon us, the snow falls thick and my favorite holiday is past. Yes, past. Most people would say their favorite holiday is Christmas. Although, I can understand that its promises of peace and joy are alluring, it is Thanksgiving that really holds my heart strings. This is because Thanksgiving really is peaceful. There is no crazy shopping and demand to buy gifts that will be forgotten. There is only food and family and friends and football. People of all creeds and colors and nations can celebrate. Thanksgiving unites.

So to avoid the chaos of the Christmas season that left me with a headache, sniffles and laryngitis last year, I decided to go back to Ohio for Thanksgiving this year. It was my first Thanksgiving in the US since I moved to Europe. I made the right choice. The days were full of meeting friends and hanging out with family but there was none of the hustle and hurry I associate with Christmas. My loved ones were relaxed, not sneaking glances at their watches. I think Thanksgiving is my home holiday of choice from now on.

Highlights:

-H and I stayed in a hotel with a swimming pool so my little brother (7 years old) and sisters (6 and 4 years old) could come hang out and swim. We had a blast! We ordered pizza and ate it by the pool. We gave them chips, we gave them chocolates, we sent them home to Mom.

-In the spring I wrote about a project H and I made for a WW2 veteran, who is a friend of my Grandma. We were able to deliver the book in person of the photos we took documenting Virgil's travels through the newly liberated Czechoslovakia in 1945. He was gracious enough to spend an afternoon telling us stories about his life. It was an honor.

-I grew up just a drive from Amish Country, but until I started dragging H around this little piece of history I don't know that I had really seen it. We spent a morning exploring towns and villages with names like Millersburg, Sugar Creek and Berlin. My favorite memory was, in a moment of modern panic at not being able to get a signal for my cell (mobile) phone, I asked an Amish check-out girl in a farmers' market where the nearest pay phone would be. She went to ask another clerk and came back to direct me about 8 miles down the road to the next village!

-Holding hands, praying and giving thanks around the table at my Grandma's house on Thanksgiving day.

-Dinner with my best friend and her husband before going to see the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey game.

-All the dinners and lunches and coffees and teas that filled our days with friends and family and happiness.