Twenty-Two Years of Blogging Thanksgiving

This year we had most of our meal from Boston Market. The husband and the oldest daughter went to pick up the meal. The market accidentally gave us a full pre-cooked bird instead of just the breast to carve, and the husband asked the market worker if he was sure, and the worker just shrugged and said *he* didn't put the meals together. So we've got enough turkey to feed a small army, and just us four. Well, two teens count as four adults with their appetites, so enough food for a week, anyway. I was going to make cranberries and sweet potatoes, but after seeing all the food cut it just back to cranberries. The oldest child likes the family recipe, boiled berries in sugar and orange zest, like me. The youngest likes the canned jelly, which I had been careful to buy a month ago to make sure it was on hand. I did get up and make drop biscuits early. All the four of us have done today is lay around and eat and watch TV and play video games.

Which is a pretty nice holiday, when you think on it. There's been pie. Truthfully though, we eat pumkin pie all year round; it's one of my key comfort foods. It's the bird that makes it all special.

I have below rounded up links to previous Thanksgving posts, as many of the posts from Boston are only available on the wayback machine. I also spent some time looking through LiveJournal. My memory of posting on Livejournal is flawed - I thought I had written quite a bit more on that platform, but it turns out my activity there between 2003 and 2009 was mostly just talking to friends. So here's the line-up. Links should open in a new window.

Thanksgiving 2000 (scroll down to where it says Thanksgiving)

Thanksgiving 2001

Thanksgiving 2002

Thanksgiving 2003 and https://einatlanta.livejournal.com/2003/11/19/

Thanksgiving 2004

Thanksgiving 2005

Thanksgiving 2006 - no specific Thanksgiving post was made over on LJ.

Thanksgiving 2007 on LJ

By Thanksgiving 2008 I was just posting about keeping two babies healthy on LJ, and nothing about how we spent the holiday.

And then I just had to stop for a while, as having two kids was quite a lot. I kept up on FB, but have never really loved that platform. I did search my post history there, and here is what I found:

No posts mentioning Thanksgiving in 2009. I think 2009 was the year my Grandma Alice came up for Thanksgiving and two of my best friends moved to Atlanta. The youngest ran around the table eating everyone's scraps after the meal and we all laughed. My mother's family always loved watching my youngest as a baby, because she looked so much like babies on that side. The older child the husband and I made always looked like his side of the family, and similar delight was had by his few family members in the same way.

I was sick November 2010. No posts about anything but work and being sick. I'm sure we went to Nashville.

In 2011, we ordered the fried turkey from Popeyes. I think friends from in town joined us for the meal.

In 2012, two of our best friends joined us at the husband's parents in Nashville, and the children got their first digital cameras in the form of LeapPads. They started taking their own pictures that year.

2013 we were back in Atlanta, and toasting marshmellows in the fireplace for the first time with the girls, having decided they were old enough.

In November of 2014 I went to Berlin, then helped my Grandfather move out of his coastal home, broke a tooth, and celebrated Thanksgiving on Sea Island, in a set of rooms bigger than many apartments I had lived in. I can't think of any month that summed up 2014 more than the month that included Thanksgiving in luxury (paid for by someone else), while I delt with a crippling dental issue I couldn't afford to fix. That was also the month I finalized a government contract with the CDC. 2014 was insane, and six years later I still can't believe all the crazy shit I did that year.

In November of 2015 we had Thanksgiving in Atlanta again, but this time the husband's parents came to visit, and set us up with dinner at the Intercontinental in Buckhead.

In November of 2016, I was sick again. I think we went to Nashville.

In November of 2017-2019, we were invited by second cousins of the husband's family to Thanksgiving about an hour north of the city.

November 2020 was the COVID quarantine Thanksgiving. We had it at the Lake Claire house with some of my cousins that lived locally. Afterwards I took plates to other family members a few blocks away who had been distancing. I think we ordered from Sweet Auburn BBQ.

Thanksgiving 2021 was the second and last Thanksgiving at the Lake Claire house.

This Thanksgiving, twenty-two years after I started blogging, eighteen years after I was married, sixteen years after my first child, I realize I largely have everything I hoped for twenty years ago, when I was, I thought, burying my white collar dreams by going back to retail work after grad school. I've had a lot of crazy ups and downs since then, but ultimately I am still living in Atlanta, I have two kids, and I pay the bills when I can. It's 2022 and the world is on fire. I suppose, on reflection, I'm thankful that I continue to just try and do my best.