When I did the video you see on this page titled: “The Night Before Thanksgiving” I was a “Mommy.” It seems like a lifetime ago.
It was in 2012, five years from this writing, Emily was only 18 and still completely carefree, she is 23 now with a 3 year old daughter, carefree is not something that describes her any longer.
Two of my five kids still lived with me and 100% of the expenses were on me. Emily still checked in with me with her whereabouts and plans, I made dinner and food shopped, I was the mommy.
Now I’m just a mother (no pun intended).
I actually never thought there was another roll to have. But I was wrong. Children grow up and become independent from us, and we need to develop another identity. Still the same station but less responsibilities makes us more of a figurehead I guess.
Nothing makes you more aware of this than when a holiday rolls around.
In the video I have placed here from 2012, I was a bit stressed and so I did what we OCP (organizationally Gifted People) do best, I stopped what I was doing, got creative and wrote my own version of “A night before Christmas” replacing Christmas with “Thanksgiving”
Watching that video is fun for me, but I have to admit, I don’t miss anything about Thanksgiving. It is a day to work your butt off in my opinion and makes you wonder if it was invented by a man to make sure women would never forget where their place really is.
This year I asked the kids if they wouldn’t mind going out to eat. I was sure to send them the details with the request, because if it wasn’t somewhere I thought they would love to go, I feared I could get a veto.
We live about 20 minute drive to NYC. The Macy’s Day Parade! The hustle and bustle, the excitement and the glitz. I didn’t want to chose a familiar home town restaurant where it would feel like, when the meal was over that it was basically done. I chose a place I really liked, that the kids had never been to it and I know that they would love it.
It’s only 3 or 4 blocks from the Port Autority on 8th Avenue and 32nd street
It is a casual but really nice Irish Pub called Tir Na Nog. A man I dated once took me there and I just loved it.
Irish might seem weird for an American holiday, but food is food and the food there is great, the atmosphere is what I think my kids will really like and it is different enough to add a splash of newness that will bring more fun to the day than the traditional same old same old.
For the first time since forever, I didn’t cook or bake a thing. I don’t have to prepare the house, or a table to set, I didn’t go food shopping for anything for the holiday at all. I’m just going to get on a bus and show the bleep up!
Change is fun, hard and necessary. Sometimes it’s not what we want and that usually sucks. But I have found that if we can learn how to give things a different meaning and roll with the punches, life just get’s better and better.
Here is to all of us doing the best we can to live life and be happy as life changes all around us.
Love,
Kathy
PS
If you have Snap Chat find me! TheTidyTutor – Kathy Roberts will bring me up 🙂