It almost started out disastrous. Traumatic head wounds and all. As a Mom, you learn your kids cries really well. It starts early on. You know if they are hungry, or sick, or faking it. As soon as I heard Luke crying, I knew he was hurt. Badly. He was in the basement, and as I ran to the top of the stairs, I saw blood, all over his hands. Then I saw his head. It was his head. The back of it. I got him over to the kitchen sink and got cold water and pressure on the cut immediately. I'm not good at lots and lots of things, but I'm good in an emergency. I'm fine with blood. Jake almost dying in my arms ensured that forever, I think. I thought we were headed to the ER for sure as there was lots and lots of blood, but once we got pressure on it we got it to stop bleeding fairly quickly and we got Luke calmed down. At that point we realized that it wasn't as bad as it had initially presented. We got him cleaned up and calmed down and had him rest on the couch with ice on it for about an hour. You realize in those moments how quickly life can change, how a normal day can turn into a nightmare. One more thing to be grateful for, as a Thanksgiving in the ER, or a truly devastating injury (this one involved the treadmill…..it could have been so, so much worse) makes a normal day a nightmare.
I went out for a run, and got in 5 miles on a glorious day that actually hit 70 degrees! CRAZY!!!! We took off to explore Cape Henlopen Park. It was beautiful and we had fun on the beach on a day that just felt like a gift, last year I remember having Nate drive me to a yoga class up in Stroudsburg in the middle of a snowstorm that left us with about 8 inches of snow. Quite the change, when I took off my fitbit I was surprised to see a tan line. A tan on Thanksgiving ~ bizarre!
My best friend and partner in crime.
The kids watching surfers.
After the beach we headed into the charming little town of Lewes, Delaware for some drinks and appetizers. It was such an unusual thanksgiving, as we always have a big crowd. Last year we had 38 for Thanksgiving, so for it to just be the 7 of us was so odd! We created new traditions! Because the Eagles stink so badly I was in no rush to watch them, but we did want to be back in time to watch the Villanova game, so we came home from lunch and put the bird in and snuggled down.
Jules was ready to decorate as Grandma had promised her that she could decorate their Christmas tree……..so while the adults watched the Nova game the kids went to town on their Christmas tree, pulling out ornaments that had been in the family for 100 years! It was a truly lovely Thanksgiving. The food was delicious and it was the perfect blend of activity and rest, food and (way too much) wine and the pies were perfection. Friday we got up and out so that we could make our 2:30 tee time. We played 9 holes, then had dinner at the club. I had to be up early this morning to teach at 7:30 and caught one of those sunrises where you just take your coffee and sit and watch it. It was like a show, unfolding in front of my eyes. I kept taking photos of it, thinking, THIS is surely the apex, it can't get prettier than this, and then it would. Amazing. One of the gifts of early morning teaching is surely the sunrises I get treated to.
Today we go into Christmas mode. We are going to go cut down a tree, then start hauling out the decorations. I'm excited as this is the first year we are cutting down our own tree. The next four weeks are going to be ~ overwhelming. Nate is traveling a lot and the weekends are jam packed. I'm trying to keep things calm by focusing on one thing at a time, because if I look at the big picture I lose my breath. This whole "return to happiness" thing still feels tenuous, and I'll be damned if I let it slip away over "to do" lists. Thank you, Amazon. Instead of taking the kids out to shop for their Angel Tree kids like we normally do, we sat at the computer and shopped for them. They will wrap the gifts when they arrive. I've never been more grateful for our tradition of only getting each child 3 presents. Nate already bought his Christmas present from me. I'm buying my own as well. Simplicity. The joy is in the traditions, not the gifts. Traditions we have plenty of.
I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. I hope your plates were full and your cups overflowed with gratitude. As we head into this season in which all things consumption are praised in our society do you have coping mechanisms to keep your life simple?
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