Last week was, as we are all well aware, Thanksgiving. I was a bit nervous about having Thanksgiving lunch (we call it dinner, but every other day of the year it's called lunch) with my family mostly because this was my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian, and I have never actually announced my new dietary preferences to my family (especially not the Matchell side). It's not that I'm intentionally keeping secrets from them or that I don't love and respect them. It's just that I feel that telling the Matchell side of the family that I don't eat meat would be similar to informing Bill Gates that I think Snow Leopard is way better than Windows or telling the "Can You Hear Me Now" guy that Luke Wilson could kick his butt in a phone service spokesman cage fight. Possibly akin to telling Smokey the Bear I'm just going to step out into the woods for a quick smoke.
Honestly, most of the practices that I disagree with might not have even been a problem at my grandparents' house. The Matchell family hunts quite regularly, and we've often had deer or turkey or fish that my cousin or uncle has killed/caught for meals. My disagreement is with the practices of factory farming, the lives the animals are forced to live, and the inhumane way in which they are killed (it's one thing to step on a spider, it's a completely different thing to pluck the legs off a spider). The reason I avoid meat is that the stuff bought in the store is almost always from factory farms and even if you can find a family farm to supply you with meat, it's difficult to be assured that the slaughtering methods are humane and reasonable. But even if I could find meat that met all my requirements, my body hasn't digested meat in several months and I'm afraid of what might happen if I started right now for something as silly as a gluttonous holiday.
So of course I was a little nervous about eating with my family. I didn't want to offend anyone, but there was no way I was putting any meat or meat products on my plate. In the end, though, everything turned out just fine. The only things I left off my plate were the turkey, ham and gravy, and somehow no one noticed or cared! Things were a bit more difficult for my celiac sister in law and niece who had to steer clear of the sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls and green bean casserole. But she and I made sure to bring some gluten-free treats that they could enjoy. She made a lemon-meringue pie that turned out really yummy and I made roasted winter vegetables and a kickin wild rice stuffing with dried cranberries and roasted pecans. DELISH!
This year was also my first participation in Black Friday. What a wonderful day! I got up at 5:30 (not early enough to be first in line for anything, but early enough to take advantage of the deals I wanted), shopped at my own pace, finished almost all of my Christmas shopping, sat at Starbucks and read while drinking delicious coffee, then headed over to my mom's mom to spend time with the other side of the family. Seriously relaxing and amazing.
I had a great time with the nieces and nephew as well. They showed me their bunk beds, we colored together, we acted silly, we laughed and sang and danced and searched for treasure (according to Jakin to get to the treasure we had to go to the following places: desert, Africa, South Pole, snow storm, icy water. It was a long journey). I love those kids.
I have so much to be thankful for and I need to be better about remember that. It can be so easy to forget our blessings and focus on our frustrations! I think I have an idea that's going to help me with that. I don't want to announce it yet, but if I do it you'll know by tomorrow. Peace.
1 comment:
You're right. You're wild rice stuffing seriously rocked. Loved hanging out with you. I think you're pretty spectacular.
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