Thankfulness is in the Eye of the Beholder

It's Thanksgiving and everyone in America is counting their blessings...and eating too much food and watching football!

For me, this is the first year Thanksgiving has become a pain instead of a pleasure.  Our family is experiencing problems that have created a rift and this holiday is forcing us to act normal.  I wish that was a true statement all around.  My niece has decided to not participate with the rest of us today because of this trouble - interestingly, she's at the center of the issue due to her immaturity and selfishness, and having no regard for her grandparents in their waning years.  I admit I am not unhappy she is not coming.

Because of this unpleasant situation, we are having our Thanksgiving dinner on neutral ground, being served instead of serving.  While its for the best, it's an affront to our traditions -- we won't have our homemade kielbasa and kapusta, nor Busia's pork dressing.  I will really miss the warm kitchen and fixing all the food.  It's a lot of work, but it's also a labor of love.

There is no love in the family this year, for which I'm not only sad, but devastated.  Even worse, I don't see a way to mend the fracture, I know this is one of our last Thanksgivings together.

Mix in my daughter will be spending the holiday alone in Chicago where she's in graduate school, and the hole just gets bigger.

My son put the exclamation point on the whole situation when he declared he loves Thanksgiving and this won't be it!  I hope his "Friendsgiving" last weekend helps make up for this sorry state.

Despite it all, I am very thankful for the way my life has turned out.  I have a fantastic husband and great children who make me very happy!  I love my job and am looking forward to many good things in the coming years.  I  only wish others in our family could realize how their selfish behaviors and misguided intentions has negatively affected us all.  But, I realize if this were possible, we wouldn't be in this strained situation.  My sadness about the disintegration of our family is shared by my father-in-law who keeps saying he thought we were stronger than this.

I thought so too, Dzia Dzia!