Family ties

Had the usual suspects over for Thanksgiving and we fried the bird this year. And potatoes and stuffing and sweet potatoes and green beans. MB wanted to fry the pie, but I cut her off. Everything was really tasty - i think we've found a winning way of cooking! Fast, too, and Aaron's son actually ate - a stamp of approval all it's own.

We each take a holiday - I have Thanksgiving and sometimes New Years, Troy and MB take Halloween, Aaron (sometimes Maynard) takes Christmas, and we all rotate the assorted summer celebrations. We enjoy our favorite games or foods, we laugh a lot, and we all think we know the best way to grill a burger.

We still commune with our families, but families being what they are, those events are usually stressful, filled with bad food, and riddled with guilt. We of the chosen family take special pleasure in spending holidays with each other.

There are families you're born into, and then there are families you chose, although sometimes they chose you. And 'though I love being with my blood family - most of them anyway - they exhaust me. I feel pressured to be what they expect me to be, and I feel myself changing from who I've become to try to please everyone, and somehow I never feel up to par. Exhausting.

But when we have a choice in those we love, I think there's more acceptance and less judgement. And better turkey. For which I'm very thankful.

I hope everyone in blogland has many things to be thankful for!