Thanksgiving 2011

Well, I just have to post after such an extraordinary day. I feel like this is a new beginning, a new chapter, a new lease on a new life. I want to make sure it is the fullest in meaning (not activity) that it can possibly be. Today was a great example of that!

Now, just to start off - I had some bad moments that I need to work on, but I'm gonna let myself off the hook since I'm still recovering from surgery! :)

So I actually had a really good night last night. Slept about 6 hours, which on steroids is pretty amazing. I looked up some awesome information about ladies with stage IV breast cancer (total of like 66 women having survived 220 years leading full and complete lives). Got up and did my routine and walked with David and had a really good conversation with him. I was getting worried that everyone is going to be second-guessing me and looking for personality changes and am I different and all that stuff. But he reassured me that I'm still the same annoying person who makes bad financial decisions - same as before! :)

Since I didn't have any groceries, I was gonna make pancakes for the girls.  Unfortunately, our stove broke in the middle of pancakes!  Oh no!  Fortunately, my breast cancer support group came to the rescue with cupcakes for the girls to decorate.  What a miracle that these were given the night before my stove breaks!!!!  So, the girls get to decorate and eat cupcakes and frosting for breakfast.  What a great Thanksgiving start!

I spend the entire morning with the girls: we watch movies, clean and organize their room (which is a really fun adventure for me, not so much for them!) and get them fed and ready for Thanksgiving.  All by myself cuz the family was out running errands!

I had a little setback after that, but it was more because I was feeling down about how I look.  Moon face, pimples, bloating and mouth sores.  Herceptin does suck a little.  There's my little pity party, now back to the program!

I was so blessed this Thanksgiving to have some wonderful people donate food for my family.  These are people that don't even know me, but came together and brought food for not just a family of 5.....a family of 12!  Which was added to 20 with close friends.  It was amazing and delicious the food that was prepared and brought to my sisters house.  We have those party table and chairs already, so we had that set up in the living room to seat the 8 kids and 12 adults.  We got nice throw-away plates and silverware, plus a little decor.  I thought it looked great (and fast and simple - which is always a plus!).

I had to contribute because this is my holiday, so I made my famous garlic mashed potatoes, sweet baby carrots and strawberry spinach salad.  Very easy stuff to make!  The most difficult thing was me trying to plan warming all the food at the same time!  Thank god for microwaves!!!

We had a fried turkey - I've never had that and it was delicious!  We had a ham which was delicious as well.  Stuffing, gravy, cranberries, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes that were to die for!  It was all so good!  My plate was LOADED with everything.  Don't worry - I did use steroids as an excuse for why I needed to eat so much!

We had plenty of food for everyone and we all got to go home with leftovers for the next day.  Of course, I had to take the meat because I'm the honey badger!  Everyone else got just the sides!

And don't think it stopped there, we still had dessert: apple pie, pumpkin pie and/or pecan pie based on your preference.  What a meal!  What a night!

Now, the most important thing about the meal was the meaning.  I was able to explain to my hispanic family why Thanksgiving has always been more special to me than Christmas.  Why I will work Christmas and New Years, but never Thanksgiving.  Why I try to make it a point to see my family during this time.  It's about the relationships, and at this point in my life, relationships is what has made the difference.  The difference between a successful fight against cancer or not.  The difference between the peace I feel and what others experience.  The difference between what the medical team thought for me, and the reality of my life.  I was able to teach each of the 19 people there what they mean to me and tell each child my hopes for them.  (David helped me translate into spanish, even though I was really rude to him.  I will blame it on steroids while I can, but he was very patient with me today!  Tomorrow my morning meditation will be on no excuses for my behavior!

After that I let everyone eat.  Y'all know that hispanics never start anything on time, so I think we didn't get to eat until like 5:30 or 6:00 and I had planned on like 4:30!  Everyone was starving!  Then the kids all spoke about what they were thankful for and then the adults.  It was so nice to hear what people had to say and gave some insight into their hopes.  I really enjoyed it.

In fact, I want this to be a tradition.  I would like to do something every year and cook for everyone and share in this special event.  I need to plan though......I still want to celebrate it with my northern family (that's what I'll call you guys "northern").  Hmmmm, now I have to think on this!  Maybe I'll incorporate this into my hispanic Christmas, I don't know.  But what I really want to continue is the giving of thanks, sharing of food, celebration of the relationships that have been forged.  That doesn't need to be on a set date, but just that it's done every year as a celebration of every year of life we have been given.