I have never liked Thanksgiving.
Don’t care for turkey. Hated sleeping on the floor at Aunt Mary’s house. Didn’t like being shuffled off to the kids’ table. Preferred chocolate cake to pumpkin pie.
Football gives me a headache; dishwashing makes my hands cry.
So the instant I got my driver’s license, I started heading out on my own for Thanksgiving — usually, given my lack of autonomy and funds, to Grandpa’s house in Oklahoma City.
There, we would eat Grandpa’s homemade spam (seriously, and it was as terrible as it sounds) and binge-watch 1960s horror movies on TV.
Later, work started taking me to conferences in Europe at the end of November. That allowed me to miss the whole Turkey Day blah-blah.
One of my favorite Thanksgiving memories is a tapas tour in Barcelona with my family-for-the-day, an American student, her sister and brother-in-law and our tour guide. We roamed around town chomping on chorizo and pouring wine down our throats from a porrón.
But while I don’t like Thanksgiving, what I do like is being thankful. I list what I’m grateful for every day in my journal. And I love having a day set aside each year to ponder what I appreciate about the previous year.
This year, Friend, I am grateful to you — my clients, customers, colleagues; my students and subscribers; my friends and family. As I prepare to celebrate 30 years in business next year, I have never felt more gratitude to my work partners and playmates.
So, whether you love it or hate it, I wish you and yours the happiest possible Thanksgiving — and a fizzy, fabulous holiday season.
Fondly,
Ann
P.S. This year, my sister and I observed Thanksgiving with a road trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, we celebrated the birthday of a total random stranger I had known for only seven minutes. Random Stranger and I are now BFFs.
P.P.S. On Thursday, I’ll be having lunch at a restaurant with some delightful neighbors. The restaurant will be serving chocolate cake.