An answer for a post.

            I have been agonizing over what to write on today and have had no luck in coming up with a subject.  The fact is that I am a slightly out of it today.  The sad thing is, I really don't know why.  I slept decently last night and am fairly alert, but I just can't seem to concentrate.  I guess that is why I am not doing to well today on this.  That being said, I will simply paste in an excerpt from the answers to my sons.
           These answers are in response to the book "Questions for My Father" by Vincent Staniforth.  My boys have been choosing questions they want answers to and I have been writing those answers.  The questions vary widely so I have chosen to share the answer to What happened on your favorite holiday?  Please read below

I guess the first thing I have to answer here is, what is my favorite holiday?  The answer to that would be thanksgiving.    This leads us to ask, why?  This is what I think this question is really asking.  What happened on your favorite holiday to make it your favorite holiday?  I can’t name a single event, more like a series of events.

In order for you to fully understand my answer, I am going to have to give you a bit of background.  The first thing you need to know is that, while I grew up in Iowa, my mother was from Wyoming.  Add to that, the fact that my mother’s side was from all over, but mainly Nebraska.  The first meant that my mom didn’t get to see her mom all that often and the second meant that she got to see her cousins even less.  My dad, on the other hand, had nearly all of his relatives within a radius of about 75 miles.  This meant that we saw my dad’s side of the family quite often and spent every Sunday at my Grandma’s house.

Sure, my mom’s family had a reunion every other year and so we got to see our relatives then, but what did we do in between?  This is where Thanksgiving comes in.  In the years that we didn’t have a family reunion, we spent Thanksgiving week with my mom’s mom.  We got to see our aunts and uncles and spend a holiday with grandma.  Grandma Skinner was a very good cook and we always ate well.  But it was the fact that we got to see her and our cousins that made it worth it.

That is really only part of the answer.  What about the years we didn’t go and see Grandma Skinner?  We went to see Grandma Ibbotson.  We would get together with dad’s sister and our cousin and have a Thanksgiving meal that I envy to this day.  My cousin and I would end up fighting over the last piece of lemon meringue pie.  We would decorate Grandma’s house for Christmas.  Then I would watch football with grandpa and we would nibble on pies and snacks and turkey and nearly everything the rest of the day.  My dad and Uncle Larry would end up snoring in the living room driving everyone to the dining room or kitchen.  Sometimes I would go out and play football with the neighbors.  In all, I have really fond memories of it all. 

While Christmas is always fun with the gifts and of course getting together with my cousins at Grandma’s house, Thanksgiving was the holiday I most looked forward to.  I knew I was going to get to spend it with at least one of my grandmothers.  But if I had to choose a single Thanksgiving to remember it would be the Thanksgiving the year after my mom died.  I was only 14 at the time and my Grandpa had died that spring.  In all it had been a rough year.  To make it worse, it was also the year for us to go and see Grandma Skinner.  Normally I looked forward to that trip.  Between losing mom and Grandpa Ibbotson, I really wasn’t in much of a celebrating mood.  I was also old enough to realize that Grandma really didn’t need to have her son somewhere else for Thanksgiving that year.  I was prepared for the worst as I expected dad to tell us that we weren’t going to Wyoming that year.  Instead, dad invited Grandma Ibbotson to join us.  So we all went to Wyoming for Thanksgiving.  Instead of having one grandma cooking Thanksgiving dinner, we had two.  They got along so well, that we ended up doing it again 2 years later and Grandma Ibbotson got adopted by my mom’s family and was permanently invited to their family reunion.  And the best part of that Thanksgiving?  I got a lemon meringue pie all to myself. 

So, when I think of Thanksgiving, I think of family coming together in good times and in bad and making things better.  I think of good food and better friendships.  I think of laughter and joy in dark times and sighs of stuffed contentment in lean times.  It is said that Christmas brings out the best in everyone, but Thanksgiving brings out the strongest desire for family and, to me, family is one of the most important things in the world.

What event led to Thanksgiving being my favorite holiday?  The gathering of my family.  Thanksgiving wasn’t about the turkey and the food, but about a sharing of time and cares with family.  That is what Thanksgiving is.  That is what is supposed to happen on thanksgiving.

Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day