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Hello and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! I hope that you are all set to have a wonderful holiday.
My mom went to heroic lengths to host Thanksgiving for us every year growing up. Perhaps because we were immigrants, she took extra steps to commemorate American traditions for my brother and me. She painstakingly spent all day preparing a turkey for us and extended family.
Secret: my brother disliked turkey. He found it to be too dry. But he never wanted to admit it because my Mom worked so hard on the meal so he would drench it in gravy or cranberry sauce. We would have leftovers for days, lurking in the fridge.
Now, as a father, I want to pass a sense of Thanksgiving tradition on to my family. But I am a total non-factor in the kitchen and Evelyn is not really the type to spend all day preparing a meal for 10+ people. There were a couple years when we went to a local restaurant and bought the “Thanksgiving Package” – turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, the whole nine. We even had a few relatives over to join us. Everyone seemed to appreciate it, but we’ve been bringing the kids on the road for the holidays more and more as they’ve grown.
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So what are we doing this year? Visiting Evelyn’s parents in Florida and going to a place where they have a giant Thanksgiving meal! That has become something of a new tradition for us: visiting grandma and grandpa, warm weather, seeing some friends in the area. The sunshine diverges from my childhood memories of this holiday, but as long as the kids associate family with Thanksgiving, I feel like we will have done the job.
I hope that you are able to spend the holiday weekend with family and friends. Gratitude and companionship are two of the biggest indicators of happiness. I have a file with a list of things to be grateful for that I refer to anytime I need a lift. Thanksgiving is a fine time for you to make a list of your own – we all have much to be thankful for.
I’m grateful to you for reading this newsletter and keeping up with me! See how it works? Have a wonderful holiday!
Email [email protected] if you want a few months off from your wireless bill and want to be rewarded with Noble Mobile. Offline’s IRL no-phones party is coming to Boston, Baltimore, and back to NYC in December. My new book comes out in February. Remember to look up and touch grass.
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