When the family arrived at 4:00 p.m., everyone noticed our calm demeanor. "No stress this year, Dad!" our 20-something daughters remarked. Which was true... until we entered the final stretch.
While we talked Thanksgiving trivia and my son told some turkey jokes, friends began passing the bottles of wine to the other end of the table, trying to make the temptation a little less for my mom.
Thanksgiving became an official holiday under Abraham Lincoln, to bring unity and hope during the Civil War -- a time when families fought each other on the open battlefield.
One year, several years ago, I asked my mom if I could bring my then-boyfriend home for Thanksgiving. "I think that would make me and your stepfather very uncomfortable," she said.
It's not that she didn't like my boyfriend. It's just that I'm happily married to someone else.
"So my kids -- aka the pumpKINs -- know that I normally go get my annual physical the day after Thanksgiving. I know it's weird, but I just love seeing the look on my doctor's face when he asks for my blood type and I say 'gravy.'"
My family has rules, your family has rules, and the one thing I think we can be fairly certain of, no matter what those rules are, is that our kids are not obeying them while they are away at college.
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