Hosting the Holidays

When I was younger, the warm, joyous feeling that we call ‘the holiday spirit’ filled me the second that the holidays arrived. The comfort that we get from the food we consume and being surrounded by good company only add to the warmth and the excitement of the holiday season.

I love to cook and I love seeing the satisfaction on the faces of my guests (and hearing their compliments). Knowing that I am responsible for making all of these people feel good with my food is my reward. Because of this, I have always looked forward to hosting the holidays at my house. But this Thanksgiving, I realized that this might not happen until I am a grandmother.

I am a domesticated homemaker at heart. I love clean laundry, I like a clean home, and I like to feed the people in my home with food that I prepared. I don’t necessarily like all of the work it takes to get all of those things done, but the outcome fills me with happiness and glee. Corny I know, but I love everything that has to do with making my home a comfortable haven… although if you walked into my house right now you would not get that impression. It’s always cozy, but I need to clean my stove and mop my kitchen, no foolin’.

Anyway, I’ve been waiting for my opportunity to throw down in the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day, but I’ve never been given the chance because there are so many moms in my life who are already carrying the Thanksgiving torch and would slice my throat if I either didn’t show up or kept someone from attending their Thanksgiving feast.

‘When I have my own family…’ is the thought that has crossed my mind in the past, but that solution doesn’t work either because when I have my own family, I’ll be forced to cart the kids around from one grandparent’s house to the other.

So for now, I’m making peace with the fact that if I want to host Thanksgiving, I will have to settle for the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving or just step back and let the moms do their job and not host anything at all. And there is always my annual Christmas Party. It isn’t Thanksgiving or on Christmas Day, but for now, it’s the compromise I will have to take.

In my opinion turkey is overrated anyway. I never reheat the leftovers because (to me) turkey tastes so much better when it’s cold. And my kitchen is cleaner (or should be cleaner) because I wasn’t obligated to cook. And thinking about how much cleaning is involved after cooking a feast, I actually feel a little relieved that I didn’t have to do a thing.

~Louise C.

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