Continuing Thanksgiving traditions

Some of my favorite childhood memories are connected to holidays like Thanksgiving, and the time I spent with my family during them.

Growing up, we always went to my Grandma and Grandpa Romero's house for Thanksgiving with all the extended family on my dad's side. We had aunts and uncles and great aunts and uncles and all the cousins. It was always packed and noisy and fun. I remember sticking black olives on my fingers, liking to play with them more than I liked to eat them. I remember Grandma being busy in the kitchen all day and swearing every year that she wasn't going to cook for Thanksgiving again. I remember Grandpa snoring in his chair and then insisting he was just resting his eyes. I remember Aunt Cindy, the cool young aunt, bringing deviled eggs. I remember playing with cousins who were older than me and wanting to fit in with them. I remember eating delicious food and watching football and playing games. Mostly I remember the general sense of warmth and fullness and happiness. 

As I became a teenager, my family started doing Thanksgiving on our own more often. That was also when we had the last Thanksgiving with our whole family and all of my siblings together. That was 16 years ago. My sister Nicole got to come visit with her new baby, the first of any of my nieces and nephews, who was less than a year old. My brother Dan had just gotten married a few months before. My brother Ryan and I were both still in high school. I have pictures of us playing with my chubby little baby niece, of our fat beagle Billy, of my dad telling my mom to sprinkle "that red stuff" on the deviled eggs, of my mom wielding the electric knife, and of course the selfies I took with my digital camera. 

Since then, we've never had all of my siblings, and the many children they have now, together to celebrate Thanksgiving. Until this year. 

This week, my sister Nicole is coming with her two children. That chubby baby is now a tall teenager, and older now than I was that last Thanksgiving together. She also has a younger brother. My brother Dan and his family, including their four children, live in Rock Springs and will be hosting the meal at their house. My brother Ryan also gets to come with his two children. 

I'm so excited to have all my siblings together again. We've had several trips where we all got to be together over the years, especially during the summers, but we haven't all been together as adults for a holiday. I'm even closer to them now than I was growing up, and love all the time I get to spend with them. 

But I'm also extremely excited for all my nieces and nephews to get that magical holiday experience like I remember from my childhood. I hope they stick olives on their fingers. I hope they get to laugh at their grandma and grandpa and have inside jokes to tell about them in years to come. I hope I've now completed my transformation into the cool young aunt who brings the deviled eggs. I hope my nieces and nephews can have fun playing with their cousins. But I especially hope they feel that sense of warmth and fullness and happiness. 

I am more grateful for my family than I can easily sum up. And I am incredibly thankful I have these magical holiday memories, and can continue to make new ones. 

I also recognize that not everyone has this experience. My heart goes out to those whose holidays weren't magical growing up, to those who are not close to their families, to those missing family members, and to all who don't feel that warmth and happiness. I sincerely hope you can find peace and joy through your choices for your life now, your found families, your memories of loved ones who are gone, and the love in your life in whatever form it takes. 

For this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for warmth and fullness and happiness, and for family, and I wish the same for everyone else.