Thanksgiving is such a good holiday for me. It’s a day or two when I get to spend time with my family, but I don’t have the stress of buying gifts or worrying about making any lists for other people to go out and stress over a gift for me.
This holiday is a time when we get together as a family to enjoy a meal and spend time together. One of my favorite parts about this holiday is that after we eat and we all lay ourselves out on the floor to let the over eating digest we all get our second wind and we play spoons — while getting seconds.
Spoons at our Thanksgiving gatherings is not your normal round of spoons. I’ve got to tell ya, we are mean and vicious when we play that game. We don’t play for any winnings, no money, no bets, nothing — just our pride and that leads to more scratching and clawing than anything.
Last year at Thanksgiving, my grandma even got out of her chair and scratched someone to get a spoon out of their hand. It’s a vicious game, but while it may be vicious we laugh, and smile and make it all fun and games.
It never gets to a point of being too serious. I just love the time I get with my family around Thanksgiving. I know that as we get older, things are going to continue to change and we all aren’t going to be able to get together as often all at the same time. As this is my first year without my sisters and their significant others, I am realizing that more and more. So, it has hit even harder how important it is to share the time you have with your family and really be thankful for it and enjoy every minute of it.
Thanksgiving is a time when I get to say, thank you — thank you for being my family, thank you for supporting me and thank you for being by my side every step of my life as I continue to figure out who I am, what I am doing and the direction I’m heading. I know that sometimes families have drama, families have fights and families don’t always get along. I am thankful that — at the end of the day — my family is one that is always there in the end.
I am so thankful for many things this year. Last year, I talked about how we say we are thankful for friends and family and all the good stuff, but really we mean we are thankful for our smart phones, our cars and our iPads.
While, I am thankful for the things I have, as I admitted last year, this year feels a little different.
This year, I feel thankful for all the relationships I have in my life now. I feel thankful that even though I have had things tear me down and try their best at breaking me I haven’t broke. I am thankful that even though there are fights and there are disagreements and there are misunderstandings that I am figuring out who my real friends are and continue to be surrounded by them.
I am thankful that as I started this new lifestyle and have kept it going that I have people supporting me every step of the way. I have family and friends that are cheering me on and are proud of my accomplishments. Not all of my goals have been met but they remind me of my progress and remind me that even though I haven’t reached where I am going, I am still headed there and help me look back at where I came from.
I am thankful that I have opportunities to improve my health, my life and my outlook. I am thankful that I have the opportunities to experience this life at a whole other level than I thought I ever would.
And last but not least, I am thankful that no matter what I continue to love and am loved. I love deeply, I am loved and I continue to love no matter the cost. Because no matter what, when all else is gone and all else is scattered and all else fails, love is left, love prevails and love will never leave.
Katie Yantis appears in the Troy Daily News every Wednesday.
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