Thanksgiving

We have a long tradition of surprising each other in this family. And this weekend, Mary continues the tradition. She managed to pull off a surprise (for me) visit by Daughters One and also Two for Thanksgiving weekend.

So I come home with my mind full of just everyday stuff. I’d just been to the gym and then the store where I picked up such thrilling Thanksgiving staples as toilet tissue and Band-Aids. I’m thinking about whether to vacuum before I shower and wondering whether Mary has fed the cat. And I round the corner from the kitchen to the dining room and there they are!

I didn’t know quite what to say and in fact, it took me a second to comprehend what I was seeing. And not just because of the surprise, which was complete.

The two women before me were two women. Not my little girls (although you gotta know they always will be) but two women with their own lives and their own takes on life. Two women with experiences I will never really know from the retelling and whose futures are their own.

If ever there was a perfect time for me to become reacquainted with One and Two, this is it. They are each on the cliff’s edge of heading into new chapters in their lives, lives supported but not defined by our parenting of them. And I get a whole long weekend to get to know them.

I’ve long considered myself the master at pulling off these family surprises. But yesterday, I got schooled a bit by my wife.
I find myself feeling particularly thankful this Thanksgiving weekend.