Thanksgiving Plans in June!

Along with all the cleaning out of our old files and closets, I am also planning ahead. I am making Thanksgiving plan. In June!

To recap: My sister’s husband and I switch off holidays every year. One year I will cook Thanksgiving dinner and the next year, I will cook Christmas dinner. This agreement has worked well through the years. This year, I am scheduled to cook for Thanksgiving except there is a problem.

I hate cooking Thanksgiving dinner. It is a lot of work for a boring traditional dinner that has to be made all at the last minute. I am just not up to it.

Four years ago, I cooked my last traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It was too much. I was overwhelmed and exhausted and I got sick. It was just not worth it. At that time, I told Michael and my mom that I was done. Never again.

Two years later, I cooked a family favorite of Mock Chicken Legs instead of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I was able to make them the day before and survived the holiday without exhaustion. My sister and her husband were not amused with my break from tradition. He mentioned that they were going to cook a big turkey the next day.

It was not a success.

Recently, my sister phoned to tell me that they realized that I might need help with the holidays, they wanted to bring the turkey and stuffing goodies, have her daughter bring all the dessert ingredients and all of them stay with us for two days and cook it here. Imagine what stress that would be? Our kitchen is not large and I would constantly be washing dishes and cleaning up after the cooks. Besides, who is going to make the three meals a day while they are all here? It felt very overwhelming.

When hearing this, I knew that I was going to have to take the next big step. That step happened last week.

I called mom and asked her to make Thanksgiving luncheon reservations for all of us at a beautiful restaurant out in the country near her home. It serves a buffet of very high quality food. Besides turkey, they feature prime rib, lamb, chicken and tons of other food. Everything. We would meet all at her house for simple appetizers at noon and have the meal at 2:00PM. We can be back in the car heading home by 5:00PM. Mom would not have to pack and come in for a few days. She is feeling more anxious when she leaves  her home overnight the older she gets. She could stay home. She was pleased.

Perfect. We will pay the bill! Done.

I know my sister and her husband are going to hate this. It is a break from tradition. So, when shall I tell them? I will make the phone call in October to let them know that I am not feeling well and just not up to having everyone at our house. What can they say? They will say they will have Thanksgiving at their house. I will say that the reservations have already been made.

Maybe, just maybe, they will begin to understand that I need to adjust to keep carrying on with life. This is an adjustment.