It's Thanksgiving, Sort of

We are about to have six dogs and twelve people converge on our parents' home for the holiday. Thankfully, my parents have a good sized back yard and plenty of sleeping room. Now, if all the personalities could fit in the house.

My mom has been looking forward to this for a long time. Yet, I constantly hear mumbles in her voice about how our grandmother is going to ruin everything. Chances are, she might. But, if we plan for that to happen, and assume the worst, we may be predicting our own future.

While more easily said than done, we have encouraged everyone to plan for the best and manage exceptions. If we constantly predict and plan for the worst, we often encourage the worst to happen. So this year, we are encouraging everyone to have a good time and let my grandmother just be. We are all old enough that our mom is now the grandmother and we want her to enjoy the time with her grandson.

If it is a traditional holiday there will be something that goes astray, but worrying won't add to anyone's enjoyment.  Just in case, my plan is to get a good bottle of wine and plan on spending a lot of time playing with my son and the dogs. Or, better yet, enjoy everyone for who they are and that we are all here together--which is somewhat of a miracle given all that we have been through. Not sure this will work, but it is worth a try and I thank God we are all here together.