This was my first thanksgiving without my father here, and it felt weird. He lives in a senior community where he is now on an assisted living hall. It was not going to be feasible to get him to my house and care for him. I went yesterday to take him some dessert from Thanksgiving and had a visit. I count my Thanksgiving that he still knows who I am.
Pictured here are my mom, her friends, my friends, and two visitors who had no family in the area. One is an international graduate student at GA Tech from Mexico (he's renting from my mother), and one is a resident pharmacy student who works for my friend. It was nice to show a real American thanksgiving with this student--he was interested in how the turkey was cooked, and I enjoyed sharing my experiences with him!
My back, alas, decided to be a pain by dinner time, so sitting through the meal was hard. Everyone helped clean up, and I'm very grateful for that. I've put in another call to my doctor. This is so draining emotionally!
Happy Thanksgiving, Daryl! I imagine your family feasted on your good cooking. Imagine this -- I flew to Munich on Wednesday and arrived on Thursday, and I promptly went to the home of an American friend to have Thanksgiving here. She had to order a frozen French turkey because they don't eat whole turkeys here. Crazier than this is the fact that there is a "Black Friday" shopping day! How can Germans have a Black Friday without Thanksgiving on Thursday?
@jyokota Happy Thanksgiving to you too! I kept hearing of "Black Friday bans" in France and elsewhere in Europe (on NPR) and I kept wondering how can you have a black Friday if you don't have Thanksgiving? Ha!
Oh, and one of my friends from Holland had Thanksgiving with us one year, and her whole family was in a great wonder about using a whole turkey--she also said that most of a bird they had ever seen was the breast on a bone--that cooking the whole bird was "just not done." Perhaps that is a regional thing?
Not sure if that turned them off from Thanksgiving as they never accepted our invite to return! Ha!
@kali66 it's getting to be a broken record here, and a big concern I am missing something because this is not normal--it's not really getting better, and I think I'll need to insist someone explain my MRI to me in greater detail! I would choose a route of recovery if I knew exactly what I was recovering from (other than pain).
@danette Thanks Danette. It's consuming my time and mental health. Helpers are not aplenty in this household, but they do it when I need it. Just wish it were more voluntary!
@darylo I hear you. Pain is all-encompassing. I don't know how people live with chronic pain. I had a back/leg issue for about 2 months and it wore me out. Your girls will grow up to be wonderful helpers. I think young people (all generations of young people) are so used to their parents taking care of them, they forget to be more helpful to their parents.
It looks so lovely, and I really like how you invited people you don't know well. When we lived in Sydney, we often had 'extras' for Christmas who had no family around, and it was wonderful getting to know them. I really hope you back issue gets fixed Daryl. Fingers and toes crossed.
a wonderful thanksgiving photo
my eldest is having back problems atm - trying to find relief that works - I can imagine what you are going through from seeing how she has been suffering
Oh, and one of my friends from Holland had Thanksgiving with us one year, and her whole family was in a great wonder about using a whole turkey--she also said that most of a bird they had ever seen was the breast on a bone--that cooking the whole bird was "just not done." Perhaps that is a regional thing?
Not sure if that turned them off from Thanksgiving as they never accepted our invite to return! Ha!
my eldest is having back problems atm - trying to find relief that works - I can imagine what you are going through from seeing how she has been suffering