Pushing the "Pause" Button

It always, always ends the same way.

We open our doors, plop down on seats and sigh the sigh of utter exhaustion with a hint of

'we made it. barely.' within it's long exhale.
We then drive home to unload and carry upstairs five half or fully asleep children.

How many times do we do this, and forget the last time we plopped, sighed and swore it wouldn't happen for another five years?

***

This year we were fortunate enough to receive three very generous invitations for Thanksgiving celebrations with our families.  All the invitations were with people we love. And all for Thanksgiving dinner served smack dab in the middle of the majority of our children's {crucial} daily naps.

We weren't going to do all three, as two of them would have overlapped each other, and one was a distance away. But then, late Thursday evening the thought occurred to us:

Let's push "Pause".

Why not take a year that holds 5 very busy, very small, unable-to-help-themselves-in-almost-every-way children and simply stay home?

Why not acknowledge that while your heart instinctively imagines family dinners the way they used to be, when you could actually sit and converse with a family member for more than 1 minute at a time, is, for now, something of the past. Hopefully, it will be a thing of the future as well. But for this season, it always ends up with the plop on the van seat paired with the exhausted sigh.

Part of me feels like a wimp {I should be able to handle my children and crowds better), but the bigger part of me feels relieved.

Often it's said, "Bring you're children! There will be plenty of hands to help!".
I completely appreciate the willingness behind those words, and I love to share my children with those I love...but I have come to discover that taking our children into bustling homes full of people {with or without helping hands!} somehow makes the effort of the event even more chaotic. It is not a reflection of the hosts, the company or my children...it's just how it is IN THIS SEASON of our life.


And thus, this Thanksgiving will be breaking tradition for the first time ever in my life.
I've always had to miss Santa Clause arriving on his sleigh down Broadway in New York City at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade...but this year, we can stay in our PJ's all throughout the blimps, Broadway bits and all the way to jolly Old Saint Nick at the end, ushering in my favorite time of year. I will, however, miss seeing much loved relatives but am grateful for their gracious understanding at our decision for this year.

We've ordered a small turkey from the Turkey Farm down the street, are stocked with green beans and Costco's instant mashed potatoes (did you actually think I would go all out and make them fresh?? Well, these are all natural and shave off about an hour of prep, and taste GREAT!). All this week I've been making a BIG DEAL in talking with the children of the extra-special dinner we are going to have on Thursday night (not afternoon!), just like the Pilgrims and Indians did many years ago. Grandparents are warmly invited to come if they are able, and we shall have ourselves a little Gratitude Feast at our very own kitchen table. Of course, it will probably include a few water spills, cries from teething twins and forks banging on the table. That is fine by me. Perhaps, with the lack of the flutter and flurry of being 'out of their element', we will be able to more clearly explain why it is we sit down with grateful hearts.

What ever you do, where ever it's at and however it's done, I do wish you a truly special Thanksgiving. If you are going through a time where you must dig deeper than you have the energy to find something in which to be grateful, I pray that God lifts a reason for your weary eyes to behold in a surprising way this week.

'Tis the gift to be simple,

'Tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

It will be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,

to bow and to bend, we will not be ashamed

To turn, turn, will be our delight,

'Til by turning, turning, we come round right.

~Joseph Brackett, Jr.