Thanksgiving

I mentioned yesterday that I love Thanksgiving. And I do. Growing up, my family didn't celebrate Christmas so Thanksgiving took on either more importance. It's still the only real holiday I can celebrate with my parents (sorry, 4th of July just never was a big deal in my family so it doesn't feel like a holiday celebration for me). They live several states away however so we don't see them often.

Next year my mom has asked us to come visit for Thanksgiving, and by "us" I mean my whole family, the tiny amount of it there is - two brothers and their families, and an aunt. I'm not sure if my uncle and his family will be there or not. Probably not; we tend to only see them at weddings and we're weddinged-out for awhile. I realize compared to a lot of people that's not a bad sized group - even without my uncle, and counting all kids, no matter how small, it would be 12 people. But my husband's family is quite large, with seemingly endless numbers of aunts, uncles and cousins. Twelve is laughable for them. Just his immediate family (parents, siblings & spouses & nieces is 13+. The "plus" is dependent on whether or not some of his siblings have current significant others in attendance. Usually a yes with at least one of them. I think the size also seems different with his family because, how to put this nicely, well, they're a lot louder than mine. More talking, more loud talking, more hugging, just MORE.

It overwhelmed me at first. It still does occasionally, but it's starting to grow on me. Now if they'd only let me go hide in peace now and then when I need to. Hey, I'm an introvert.

I've really drifted with this post - started with Thanksgiving and it morphed into a description of my inlaws.

To bring it back onto the original topic, this Thanksgiving will not include any of my family, and none of his immediate family. But it will include some of his aunts and uncles and cousins and one grandmother. Total number of guests I believe will be about 13, with another 8 possibly dropping by for a brief visit. The loudness will be there.

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[Somehow I saved this as a draft and forgot to post it yesterday. But it was written! I blame it on the grossness that was taking over my digestive system (see Friday's footnote)]