Wednesday, November 24, 2010FamilyAh yes. The holidays are upon us.Thanksgiving is one of my favorites. I do love the colors and lights of Christmas, but Thanksgiving is great because it involves food and people and gratitude. For the first 17 years of the kids' lives, we spent Thanksgiving in some configuration with their dad. For easily ten years after the divorce, we'd manage to find a place in our hearts and homes to get together to share the meal, sometimes with other people, sometimes with some part of our family, sometimes just the four of us. When my ex-husband got together with his current wife, we all had Thanksgiving together, and when I got together with Roger he blended seamlessly in, adding his son and ex-wife to the mix. It was cozy and lovely. Last year, we didn't do that. I'm not sure what happened last year. The kids were with Roger and me and we had a lovely extended family day, with Roger's son, his ex-wife, her good friends, and a couple of other friends who chose to share the day with us. We ate and drank and Roger played Alice's Restaurant on the guitar (under duress) and it was lovely. This year, it looks like we'll do much of the same thing. It will be great, but... it's just not the same without the rest of the family. My ex-husband and his wife have cut themselves out of this tradition, for some reason. And, as weird as it may sound, I really kind of miss them. Family is a funny thing. Family is composed of people whom you really love, and who really annoy you, and whom you would probably never choose to be with if you really had a choice. But family is special. And it's weird when it spins off into other configurations that consciously and adamantly separate out certain factions. Anyway. We'll have family, in whatever configuration. And we'll be thankful for the things we do have. # posted by Katherine Doughtie Nolan @ 12:00 PM  
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