I am NOT going to do my Thursday Thirteen about Thanksgiving. I am NOT going to list all the things I am thankful for. I am NOT going to mindlessly follow the pack in this regard...I am going to mindlessly purloin someone else's idea from last week and use that.
But this Thanksgiving puts me in mind of Thanksgiving 2000. That year, we were considering attending my 20th Class Reunion in Utica, NY, in November...me and my Miami-bred husband. So a few weeks before Christmas, my husband surprised me with a trip to Paris, leaving on Thanksgiving Day! Tough decision...sipping wine and eating chocolate croissants for several days or going to hang out with a bunch of people I didn't like much 20 years ago. The wine was great. The food was incredible. And no, that WASN'T at my Class Reunion!
While we were in Paris, the world was watching as the Bush/Gore non-election was still carrying on. Each was claiming victory. Judges were involved. Florida was the culprit (having spent about 17 years of my life in Florida, I say, "Why is it always Florida?"....and then I remember the 17 years I spent there and I know why).
When we returned from Paris and work, the decision was still not made. I was talking to a young guy at my office who had gone home for Thanksgiving. As the family gathered around the table, his 90-ish grandmother solemnly offered to say the blessing. As they held hands and bowed their heads, the frail, wizened matriarch intoned:
"As we gather together as a family this Thanksgiving Day in the first year of the new millennium, let us count our blessings...
and recount them!"
I can't wait to be a matriarch!
Di
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