Thanksgiving rituals

Thanksgiving here in the US can take on a some pretty significant meaning for us. It is typically a time when families gather and lots of food and football are common.

Some of us will celebrate to the tune of a different drummer.

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Following my divorce, I tried to do the turkey schtick for my two young sons. I realized very quickly that it didn’t make it much of a “holiday”. You see, they hated turkey and I did NOT enjoy enjoy cooking.

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So the following year I decided it would be important to create our own holiday ritual.

Hmmmmm…… what to do was now my quest. I wanted something that was meaningful to our unique little threesome while at the same time honored the tradition of the “thankful” theme.

We have now been doing this since 1991 and it has come to mean something very special to my now-adult sons.

We each pick a movie and we have a movie marathon followed by dinner at a nice restaurant. We show our thankful attitude for each other by sitting through our unique choices in movies. My oldest is a film-maker so we always have an artsy-sort of flick to see (this year’s choice is “Into the Wild”). My youngest is a typical 21 year old so this year his choice is “Hitman” and I try to find something interesting that we all will enjoy (this year it is “American Gangster”).

And coodinating 3 movies and dinner is no small task – I use Excel and plot each movie’s length, location and screening time. Then I have to figure out how to squeeze them all in and allow time for our dinner reservations. Whew…… planning is half the fun of it though!

I know one day will come when my sons will want to be with their significant other’s family and I may have to find something to do on my own. While that sounds sad right now thinking about it, it will open new possibilities for me (I’ve always wanted to somehow reach out to others who find themselves alone).

Until then it is a movie marathon day for me and I’m blessed to have the most wonderful sons in the world to share it with!

May all of you enjoy this day in whatever manner speaks to your heart!

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