Thanksgiving

Let's be real:  holidays with children are just better.  When you are a foster parent, you never know whether you are going to actually "have a baby" for a holiday or not.  

Sure, I had Baby O for New Year's Eve, but Darryl and I usually just spend those home alone anyway (I know, par-tay animals!)

When Easter came, Bram went all day to visit his family, so we didn't have a baby that holiday either.

We did have Joshua for Halloween, my all-time favorite holiday, but it isn't considered a family holiday if you get my meaning.

Thanksgiving was coming and the question loomed:  would we have Joshua for this holiday?  Would he be spending it with us or would The Agency allow him to go spend it with his family?

My brother only has Miles every other Thanksgiving, so it seemed stupid to drive down to Pennsylvania when he wasn't really celebrating.  I invited him up, but he declined because he had work the day before and after.

If you want to know the truth, I hate Thanksgiving.  I've hated it since I became a vegetarian in college.  Unless I cook myself, there is usually nothing I can eat when visiting someone else.  I end up only eating what I brought and what fun is that?

I don't shop and loathe crowds, so the "thrill" of Black Friday is completely lost on me.

Then there is Thanksgiving week, or as I call it, the historical week of shittiness.  

In 2009, two days before Thanksgiving, I had to put my dog Seamus to sleep.  Shitty.

In 2013, two days before Thanksgiving, I had a surgical biopsy to find out whether or not I had breast cancer (I didn't, thank goodness) but because it was the holiday weekend, I didn't know that until Monday, nearly a week later.  Also shitty.

In 2015, my beloved Gram died the day after Thanksgiving.  I'm still not over it.  That is the shittiest ever.

The week is cursed, I tell you.

We found out that we could indeed have Joshua for Thanksgiving, and we planned on just finding someplace to go and eat out.  But then Erin invited us over.  We were thrilled.  She lives less than ten minutes away (by foot!) and we got to see Bram and I love all of her family.

We brought tons of food and dressed up Joshua and were on our way.

Joshua and Bram had a ton of fun together, and oddly enough, were wearing the same sweater from H & M in different patterns.

It was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable Thanksgivings I had had in a long, long time, surrounded by friends and family and babies.  Who could ask for anything more?