One is faced with several issues when a blog has been dormant for awhile.  The first issue, for me, is how to explain what I’ve been doing and why I went silent.

I really don’t know how to solve that issue without some lengthy – and frankly boring – post.  So I’m going to ignore it 🙂  Yes, I’ve been absent.  Yes, there’s a lot of explanations behind that absence.  No, I’m not going to go into it.  It’s nothing exciting or dramatic.  Just life taking over and leaving little room for hobbies.

Lets move on.

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Thanksgiving is approaching.  I have a few more things to wrap up for school, but I’m already finding myself drawn to my favorite holiday.  All of the family, the celebration, the lovely crisp weather… and none of the materialism.  Just a day to sit, enjoy everyone’s company, and be thankful.

I try to be deliberate in not growing stressed about Thanksgiving.  We keep it simple – turkey, side dishes, dessert.  No one enjoys a meal when the hostess is frazzled.  I say “hostess” as though we were having guests over, but it’s just the 4 of us.  None of our family lives close enough to visit, so we keep things low-key.

I feel a lot of pressure to visit my side of the family more frequently, especially around the holidays.  It’s over 11 hours of driving to get to them.  I think I’ve moved through a few different stages of emotion about that – expectation, frustration, annoyance, sadness, irritation – before coming to accept that this is how it is.  We have no plans to move closer to my family in the Midwest, and I doubt that any of my family will come visit us more than once a year, if that.  Still, as stated at the start of this paragraph, I feel a lot of pressure to visit my side of the family more frequently.

This Thanksgiving we’ll have turkey, pumpkin and chocolate pecan pie, and stuffing.  I’ve left the remaining side dishes for Chris to manage.  Afterward, I’m going to the local hospice house for a few hours in the evening, and the next day (Black Friday) we’ll spend time not in a shopping frenzy but in a decorating tizzy 🙂  I like to get all of the Christmas decorating done on the day after Thanksgiving – everyone’s home and can help share the workload!

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I think that’s enough for a start, don’t you?