Thanksgiving Day Sunshine

When the boys were still in school and before I went back to work, my favorite time of year was the two-three weeks of Christmas break.

No alarm clocks, no schedules, nowhere we had to go, and nothing we had to do. Just our little pod of family hunkered down and basking in blissful, endless days of wearing pajamas till noon.

While discussing with The Husband how we can reasonably celebrate the holidays with our grown children this year, it dawned on me how much i have been missing that block of leisure time with my boys, and now I won't even be able to have one single day to lounge with them and play games and eat food all day. 

In this truly effed up year that is 2020, on the bad days, it feels like one, long, continuous January...dead of winter, sick of snow, and suffering badly from cabin fever. This feeling has come and gone since March, but after a few days I'd be right as rain again.

And, when I'm having a good day, it feels like the past 9 months have been one, long, continuous Christmas break at home.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving.  The Husband made a gigantic meal to accompany the 22 lb turkey he bought. TWENTY TWO POUNDS! There were only going to be 5 of us, but The Husband wanted lots of leftovers.

The boys came over, Younger Son brought his girlfriend, and we had a lovely visit seated 6 feet apart around the dinner table. 

There were no games, and we lounged for only a couple of hours, but it was nice... and relaxed... and void of everything else going on in the world for a while.

And then...

I experienced a group text with all my siblings that was genuinely pleasant and loving.

Pleasant.

And loving.

It was a good day. It was the kind of day I needed to punch a hole in the funk I'd been stuck in for the past month.

Now... I realize this isn't a permanent fix. After all, winter hasn't even begun yet, so I know there's a long road of up and down days ahead. But I really needed a little inner sunshine, and I'm gonna appreciate this feeling while it's here.