Giving thanks, Thankgivings past and present.

 

As a kid I used to really look forward to Thanksgiving. They let us out of school early, we got almost a week off, and the food was out of this world. One good thing that you could always say about our house during any holiday, it was a meeting of SEVERAL awesome cooks. The dishes they dirtied almost always ended up being a mountain, but the food they created was well worth it. Yum.

As I joined the Navy and began spending fewer Thanksgivings at home, the shine on the season started to rub off a bit. It became just another day where everyone else seemed to be spending time with family and friends, and I wasn’t. now don’t get me wrong, there were a couple of doozies tossed in there for good measure. One where I actually did all the cooking, and another where I would have rather been locked in a dark room than to be out in the light where people could see me. But the holiday just didn’t have the same luster for me as it had when I was a kid.

That seemed to continue as I began going offshore. In the diving world you’re available when they need you and holidays only count for office folks. Thanksgiving became secondary to Christmas because we generally only managed one, and not both, at home. Generally if you ask my mother which she’d rather have us home for, it’s Christmas.

And so it has been, until recently.

Lately, as in the last couple of years, I find myself looking very much forward to Thanksgiving. One, because I deeply enjoy spending time with my wife, regardless of what time of the year it is, or where we find ourselves. But also because I like the whole idea really. As a kid we got plenty of the ‘meaning of Thanksgiving’ in school, but it didn’t really sink in until much later. I have been incredibly fortunate in my life to make some of the most excellent friends a person could ask for, and I’ve been allowed to lead a life that is unique and interesting at the same time. I have a crazy wonderful family that I wouldn’t trade for anything, and I feel I’ve been quite blessed pretty much all around. Added to that, I hear there is another bundle of fun on the near horizon in 2010, for which my wife and I will be very thankful.

All in all, with everything considered, I am very thankful for everything my life has been and has the potential to be in the future. It’s exciting, a little scary, but I wouldn’t miss it for anything.

So to my friends, my family, my wife, and anyone else out there who has enriched my life in some way large or small…thank you. You are not taken for granted.

Just another day?

I turned 40 today. Wow. Bigger deal than I thought? Nah. I woke up same as always, grabbed my morning banana and a caffeine kick-start, and off I go. I did get to wake up next to my lovely wife, which is always a wonderful way to start your birthday. I can’t think of anywhere I would rather be.

We ended up hitting a Thanksgiving potluck mixer down in the clubhouse last night and it was a lot of fun. We got to meet a bunch of our neighbors, so that was nice. As it turns out not all of them are snobby pretentious assholes, so that was a good discovery as well.

I got the coolest gift from my sister Colby. She sent me a book full of pictures of me through the years, as well as many of my family, friends, etc. I have no idea where she got a lot of those as some of them I haven’t seen in years, or even at ALL in a couple of cases. Way cool gift that had my wife and I both laughing and crying as we flipped through it. It means all the more because I’ve lost pretty much every picture I had from when I was a kid. Thanks Colby! You rock!

The agenda for today is fairly free form. We’re going to do some cooking this morning, once everyone else gets up. (My sister in law Nina and a good friend Adam arrived last night for a visit.) Once all that’s done…we’ll play it by ear. We do have plans to hit the Mongolian BBQ this evening. One of the most anticipated dinners in a good long while. I haven’t eaten Mongolian since…I was in the Navy. So yeah it’s been a while!

So back to the age thing. It makes me laugh, honestly. I don’t know what 40 is supposed to feel like, but from here it feels pretty damn good. I still get carded when I buy alcohol, ironically far more than I ever did before I was legal! I still read comics, dig cartoons, and despite all efforts to the contrary consider the Star Wars saga to be my favorite movies. I’ve always been the young at heart type. I take very little serious in this world, I find the humor in things most people can’t, and I try very hard not to sweat the small stuff. Is that a recipe for longevity? I have no idea. The men in my family tend to have open-heart bypass surgery at or very near 40, so we’ll see. I know from my last two physicals that the docs like what they’ve seen, so that has to be a good sign. For my part, I don’t think about it much. I live each day as it comes at me, and make it count. After that…it’s all just numbers on a calendar.

So have a great day on my birthday!