Our centerpiece

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers living in the States. My younger sister and I consider this our favorite holiday…

We just watch movies in our sweatpants all day until dinner is ready (usually around 3:30 pm). We host it at my parents house and it’s really laid back and comfortable for everyone. No fuss, no muss…except maybe for my mother who wakes up at 5:00 am to start cooking.

One of our silliest traditions here is our Lord of the Rings inspired center piece. My father happens to be a huge Tolkien fan and when the films came out he sort of went bizerk for all the paraphernalia. One of his friends bought him some of the figurines, which he had left in our living room for quite some time. At some point, years ago, my mother was preparing our Thanksgiving feast and randomly flipped out about the LOTR figures laying around the house, “Get those dolls out of here!” she yelled and then she hid them in the basement when no one moved to follow her orders.

For some reason my sister and I found it so hilarious and when we began setting the table (our one chore for the day) we decided to use the Ring Wraiths and Frodo figurines as our center piece. When my father saw it, he was hysterically laughing and even my mother couldn’t contain herself when she came into the room. Our guests also seem to find it oddly-funny and now it’s somewhat of a legend. People will say, “I want to come over for Thanksgiving and see this center piece.” What started out as a way to aggravate our mother turned out to be a family tradition. It’s been years since it began and the center piece expands every year (last year we added Wall-E to the mix). It’s just a bit of family silliness that makes this day a little more special than that other holidays. (Although Christmas Eve at my Aunt and Uncle’s house is also a favorite.)

All that to say, I’m going to use this weekend to recharge a bit, hang with my family and wind down. Lately, I’ve forgotten that I have an awful lot to be thankful for, todays the day I start remembering.