Thanksgiving will never be the same

Well I don't need to tell you that Thanksgiving is this week. Our church already celebrated with a dinner on Saturday; I was grateful for that so I could still  participate in the church activity but also go out of town to visit family for the actual holiday. I made this cake for the dinner, I'm pretty proud of it.

That's all cake and buttercream frosting :)

While I have always loved Thanksgiving dinner and watching the parades and football and whatnot, they (obviously) aren't the meaning of Thanksgiving. As we enter this holiday I can't help but think back to what I was doing on Thanksgiving Day last year.  On Thanksgiving morning, after Ben and I had been up all night taking care of her and making sure she was comfortable, I watched my Grandmother (who's maiden name is actually my first name, but spelled "Gauchat") take her last breath.  We knew it would happen soon, and we got to spend several days with her before it happened, but it still changed Thanksgiving for me.  We didn't eat a huge meal or really even celebrate. In fact we went home and slept for the more part of the day (since we had been up all night taking care of Grandma).  When we did have energy, all we wanted to do was go be with family.

It didn't matter that we had spent the week leading up to Thanksgiving around our family.  Grandma's house was small and she had 8 kids, most of whom came to visit. Most of her grandchildren either flew or drove to see her before she passed, and several of her great-grand children as well.  People came from all over (from Canada to Hawaii) and we were all in Grandma's little double-wide for a week (coming and going, but still, it was a huge crowd).  Most of the time I would be so overwhelmed with that amount of people for so long that I would want to just be alone for a while, but the feeling of wanting to be with family was amazing that day.

Before this I looked at Thanksgiving as a day when I should think about all the things that I have to be grateful for, but really I was thinking about the pie and rolls and how good my dad's mashed potatoes were going to taste.  Now, I can't stop thinking about just being with family.  I could care less about the food, heck we could eat pizza and I would happy, as long as I got to spend time with family.  I do think that the time spent with family in preparation for Thanksgiving is a fantastic use of my time (you can't beat memories in the kitchen), and I hope that this Thanksgiving you all use the activities of Thanksgiving to really enjoy being with your loved ones.  Don't worry so much about the Black Friday sales and whether or not your cranberry sauce will turn out as perfectly as you want. Just enjoy being with your family. That's what matters most.