Familial #30BrighterDays

Last night I got my first decent sleep in many days. Thanksgiving feast for 19 was a resounding success; a relaxed convivial atmosphere wherein foil serving troughs blissfully coexisted with Spode china.

Everyone cooked and served and cleaned, which made hosting doable and even more intimate. All those hands whisked, served, cleared and washed together who in years past diapered, fed, rocked, and wiped faces alongside me (or, me, in the case of my parents).

I love when family and friends combine and it all feels familiar. Familial. If you want to see the biggest grin on my face? Watch me watching people I love enjoying each other; like when someone takes your book recommendation seriously enough to actually read it, only to flip out over it as much as you and report back. That feeling times ten plus watching it play out in real time. I delight in seeing my peers and my parents interact, I adore overhearing snippets of conversations and seeing my husband and kids through other people’s eyes.

My dad carved the turkey. I’m so glad I asked him. In truth I welcomed the help, but I forgot it’s also a head of family tradition and an honor. My mom’s horseradish cranberry sauce earned new superfans. They–and my step-parents too– brought with them a light happy spirit.

Husband asked one of the five teenagers how he was enjoying middle school. “I’m a sophomore in high school, but I liked it when I was there!” We are in the losing track of whole inches and entire grades years.

My grade school girlfriends coordinated a synchronized toast to our friendship across three time zones.

Before I fell asleep I conducted an internal review of some of my most favorite insecurities. Nothing more convincing, deluded, and worse for sleep than an over tired super ego–the one that ignores all of my blessings and demands to know where my blog readership went and who exactly I think I am anyway. Whatever, she’s family too. I put that familiar nutsy lady night night, and woke up rested, brighter. I didn’t even mind finishing up the last of the dishes.

This post is part of #30BrighterDays; a thing I made up to brighten each day of November