It is time once again to press the pause button on our busy day-to-day lives and to recognize and be thankful for the many blessings we are given. I embrace this Thanksgiving, my first as a part of the new little family that Patrick and I have created for ourselves. We know that as we have become family to each other, we have accepted the other into our own extended family.
I look forward to spending this reflective day in the company of the Loftins and the Austins. I will happily embrace their traditions, endlessly compliement their cooks and take time to be truly thankful that I have been so warmly welcomed into this very special family.
It is not without a heavy heart though, as being with one half of our family necessarily means that I will not spend Thanksgiving with my own family. I will miss our traditions, mom and I decorating the house for Christmas while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, still being sent out to the kids table at 25 years old and eating all the dinner rolls my cousins and I can stuff in our mouths, and staying over at my grandparent’s house long after everyone else has left, catching up on all the news and trying to get their little dog, Max, to pay me any attention.
These are the things I know I will miss while on the other side of the state, a necessity of growing up I suppose, but not without heartache.
I am thankful to have such wonderful memories to miss, and thankful to have so many wonderful memories still to create.