Thanksgiving Eve. My favorite holiday of the season. All the mess and preparation and silliness. None of the formality or rushing around or pressure from “day of” expectations. Plus… there’s sugar crustos made from discarded pie crust. #delicious
On Thanksgiving Eve, my family gathers to break stuffing bread into heaping piles that smell amazing. Pie crusts are rolled out and Grandma’s expert hands teach little fingers to curl the edges in an adorable, albeit uneven, pattern.
Thanksgiving Eve is a gift. The PERFECT time to set your expectations for the holiday.
As you do, remember this truth: the most reliable predictor of how a family will behave is how they have behaved.
I’m not saying there’s no possibility of change. There is.
It’s also true that human brains are efficient little things and in times of high stimuli, they tend to revert back to what they’ve always done.
Husband is going to ignore everyone for half the day while he meticulously overattends to the turkey in the smoker outside.
After dinner, he’s going to crash on the couch and not really talk to your dad. And he’ll probably roll his eyes when you want him to make paper turkeys with the kids.
For better or worse, he’s probably gonna do what he’s always done. You have the option to plan on it. And let it be okay. Shrug. Or laugh.
Or ask him to do something different – from a place of love for him and for you.
The point is, on Thanksgiving Eve, you have the opportunity to decide how you want YOUR Thanksgiving to go. Expect that everything will happen how it usually does and then what?
I’m going to decide to enjoy it. On purpose.
All of it.
I can only be pleasantly surprised from there.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
