Happy Thanksgiving!

Right now I know a handful of people who will be home, all alone, on Thanksgiving. And not one of them is sad about that!

For the past couple of weeks everywhere I’ve been strangers have asked what I am doing for the holidays. Grocery clerks, nurses at the doctor’s office, bank tellers, you name it. When the nurse asked me what my plans were and I said “I don’t have any”, she looked at me like I had come from another planet. “Oh, are you cooking a turkey?” I said no, that I don’t do that any more. I wish I had added that I drink a bottle of wine now instead. Ha!

But the looks you get when you don’t seem to give a flyin flip about this holiday are quite amusing. My sister says that you can’t say that – that you will be alone and doing nothing. She says that she makes something up because otherwise people think you are pathetic.

The truth is that I don’t have much family. Only 2 of my kids are near me and I have one sister. My daughter nearly always goes to her boyfriend’s family’s house and my son visits his dad who has a big family. And although being invited into someone elses home to spend the holiday with their family seems like a nice thing to do, it is not appealing to me. I don’t want to spend time watching another family spend time together.

Thanksgiving is a family holiday and if you don’t have family, there is no sense in celebrating it. We don’t all have parents, grandparents, cousins, etc. and those of us who don’t prefer to be alone. Some people do have big families and just want to steer clear of all the drama of being together.

So leave us alone if we decide to be alone on Thanksgiving. Enjoy your turkey and crowded roadways and I’ll enjoy a peaceful, quiet day, drinking my wine.