I Still Suck At Thanksgiving

yesterday was thanksgiving. happy thanksgiving!

unfortunately, i still suck at thanksgiving. the day the pilgrims and native americans sat down for dinner is supposed to be a joyous day to give thanks. lately, however, i really haven't had much to give thanks to... outside of my family and friends. i mean... really... what can i say? thanks for taking my son (braden michael) away? thanks for replacing my security alarm? thanks for replacing my septic control panel? thanks for replacing the rear brakes in my car? thanks for [insert broken item needing to be replaced here]? thanks for all these headaches since braden passed away?

i know i must sound like a miserable person. right now, i feel pretty miserable. as insane as this sounds, i sometimes think going on a downward spiral would do wonders for me. it's like homer simpson's quote about alcohol: "the cause of-and solution to-all of life's problems". luckily, karen keeps me pretty grounded.

lately, it has just been hard to focus of the positives since braden passed away. i suppose i should be thankful that i was able to even see braden for the one week that he lived. i'm obviously thankful that i have a great family... and great friends who have supported both karen and i throughout these times. aside from that, i feel like i keep waiting and waiting for something "good" to happen. it has definitely been some trying times.

anyway, karen and i started off our thanksgiving... running about three miles to my favorite sister-in-law's (janine) for breakfast. apparently, the story goes that janine was supposed to send karen a recipe for pumpkin waffles. janine kept forgetting to send the recipe. so instead, she invited us over for breakfast to have the pumpkin waffles. (for the record, the waffles... very delicious... and filling. cue rachael ray's "yum-o" sound.) and well, in our efforts to do some sort of exercise, karen and i decided to have our own turkey trot road race and run to her place from our house.

when breakfast was over, karen and i then went back home and prepared for thanksgiving dinner at karen's parents' place. it's funny. it seems like the entire day is planned around getting ready for meals. karen's parents had invited my parents over as well for thanksgiving dinner. thus, both my parents and karen's parents would be at the same place this thanksgiving. having both sets of parents in one location is so convenient and less stressful. before, karen and i would have to visit karen's parents in the day... and then leave there to go to my parents in the evening. it was just too complicated... and often a waste of food because inevitably we would be too full to eat later in the day.

regardless, thanksgiving dinner was very good. i think my parents enjoyed it as well. heading down to quincy, karen and i noticed that our car was making a rattling sound... yet another thing to be "thankful" for, i guess.

i think the most memorable part of the day came after thanksgiving dinner. after driving my parents back to their place, karen's parents, karen and i went to visit karen's grandmother (nana) who is currently living at a nursing home (marian manor) in boston. we brought nana a turkey dinner and called karen's other relatives via our cell phone. nana spoke to all of her children to wish them happy thanksgiving. when she spoke to her son (richie... karen's uncle), she said the funniest thing to him... "it's about time you did something." karen's uncle richie has not exactly visited nana that often since she's been in the nursing home. granted, he lives in tennessee. it was just comical that nana replied with that statement when richie told her he was coming up on christmas to see her. i think richie got a chuckle out of it too.

but, i guess it just goes to show that all along nana knew what was going on... or not going on i suppose. she just could not communicate her thoughts for awhile due to the accident. i sometimes think people automatically assume the elderly do not know or comprehend things... which is a shame. the incident last night simply made me laugh.

anyway, that was pretty much my thanksgiving. hopefully, next year i will be in better spirits for thanksgiving. i guess we'll see...