I can’t believe it is almost Thanksgiving.  Life has been such a whirl that the calendar got away from me. 

There are so many things I am thankful for, and tops of the list is being breast cancer free. I am also thankful for the love of my friends and family.

And I have to be a total girl, I am thankful that I no longer have to go to what was my almost sister in law’s .  She is named after a favorite month of the year, but she is anything but representative of that time of year.  She would, however, make an excellent turkey.

My ex had a slightly welcome to bizzare-O-world family.   They were, of course, far superior to us mere mortals so Thanksgiving was interesting from the first year on. 

My first Thanksgiving I was referred to as the “city girl”.  (I did wear brown suede pants so I guess that was unusual or something.)

My second through eighth Thanksgivings always had a similar theme : (1)  criticizing those who were not present (when you are perfect, you can’t help yourself); (2) talking about Thanksgiving when they were little (that was normal even if having a club to “liquidate” a younger sibling was very Dexter of them); (3) asking me to bake and or cook, and then having a weird case of one-upmanship and making duplicates of the things I was asked to provide; (4) making sure photos of my ex’s ex-wife fell out of family photo albums – which was actually a favorite of mine because she had the ugliest wedding dress and worst hair I had ever seen. (and who the hell gets married at sunrise and barefoot in a local park, anyway?)

There were people who would come to Thanksgiving I enjoyed (and have kept in touch with),  but there were some years I found it hard to sit still.   It was hard to sit around a small, dark green living room and make small talk with people some of whom you were sure would cut you to ribbons behind your back if you weren’t there. 

Sorry, but I couldn’t resist — let’s get real — we all have family/in-law/almost family holiday stories, but I just had a fit of giggles thinking about some of these recent past events.  We’ve all had them – you are there and you are thinking you can’t possibly be there, that someone was sure to pop out a closet to tell you that you had been punk’d.

So yes I am thankful on many levels as Thanksgiving approaches….sorry for the trip down memory lane, but seriously, sometimes there are some series of holidays that are so perfectly made for a future sitcom…..I did however, lose my appreciation for a good plaid…..