Away from Home on Turkey Day

Ladies and gentlemen, there are several topics I wish to cover before I go to bed, and so I will outline them now:

I. On turkeys and cooking away from home
II. There is no kid's table here
III. Holidays are awesome and yet depressing

On turkeys and cooking away from home
First off, Sharon and I had a great time getting together our portions of our thanksgiving dinner in Madison. Like life, there are so many things about preparing the t-day dinner that your parents never told you, and suddenly you are supposed to know how to do. Like, say, cooking a turkey. Seems simple enough, but there are all these little tricks and secrets about how to stuff it, how to keep it juicy, how to pray to the turkey gods it doesn't catch on fire or never thaw.

I called mom during our preparations in the early afternoon with some turkey questions and managed to talk to all of my family. It was really nice, but bittersweet, because I could remember all the years I'd been there, all the times I'd taken dad's liver patte preparation for granted, and suddenly I needed to ask for that help. I missed them and wished I could be both at home and still here all at once.

There is no kid's table here
Sharon and I ended up having four people over for dinner--a party of six, which was really ideal for our apartment. There were no relatives or kids of any kind, just six 20-somethings working like champs to get the table set and all those t-day staples cooked. We took pictures of the full spread, and just relaxed and ate together and laughed and drank maybe too much wine. We were all so full after a most delicious dinner that we took a walk to Sarah's and visited her cats, and then came back for delicious pie. There is something to be said for spending a holiday with friends. It was very stress free, and everyone pitched in to clean and such. A very responsible and fun turkey day.

Holidays are awesome and yet depressing
Oh man, this portion could go on forever if I let it, so I'm going to try not to get out of hand here. . .

I love the holidays. I love buying and getting gifts. I love all the cooking and preparation. I love getting to see my extended family and little cousins and my highschool friends and watching silly holiday specials. The holidays are a chance to take stock of your life and be thankful for all your life has to offer you.

That said, it's really that "take stock of things" portion of the holidays that make me sometimes just want to curl up and die a little. Please do not get me wrong: there is alot that I look forward to this coming holiday season. I have a great job/career track, I have so many wonderful friends here. I love Madison--so full of things to do and genuinely decent people.

But heck, you know where the hang-up I have is. As a decent-looking, relatively pleasant girl the single world is my veritable oyster, yes? So many boys and parties in the future! That's pretty ok by me for the most part, but the holidays sometimes make me wish I was settled. This certainly doesn't make me unique--as far as I can tell, being single during the holidays can be a very cold sort of hell.

But last christmas was so hard. I remember at one point wandering through Walmart, with all the christmas carols droning on and on, and just crying every other aisle, because things were really going badly for me and Dave and I was beginning to really know it. I think mainly I'm not scared of being single, but (at this time of year) so mindful of the nice secure things I had with Dave.


Ehhhh, I will certainly be alright. I really did have a wonderful day, and it was well spent with wonderful friends. I am so lucky to have them. And lucky to have such a wonderful family. I am lucky to have known so many wonderful people and loved more than one genuinely grand guy. So thanks to whoever made that possible. It's pretty awesome.