Thanksgiving Blues...

Unfortunately this year, I'm feeling a little sad on the day I'm supposed to feel the most blessed.

For some reason, Thanksgiving nostalgia has hit fairly hard & I'm missing all the things I don't have this year. I'm picturing so many of you sleeping in on your day off, then pulling yourself out of bed in time to watch the Macy's Day parade interspersed with preparations for Thanksgiving dinner. (is the turkey ready yet?) Then you'll gather with family & friends around the table and allow yourself to eat yourself into a lethargic bliss, all the while talking about the many things you have to be thankful for this year. After your last serving of pumpkin pie, the men will retreat to the living room for an afternoon & evening of football & the women will head to the kitchen to clean up & chat about everything happening in their lives, followed by going through newspaper ads to figure out where they'll shop tomorrow. And isn't tonight the night The Sound of Music is always on TV? ...sigh... And then tomorrow morning you'll wake up at a ridiculously early hour to get some of the early bird specials & spend a good chunk of the day Christmas shopping.

I know it by heart. And this year I miss it with all my heart.

This morning in our Student Life staff meeting we all shared what we were thankful for. I had to force myself to come up with a few decent contributions to the list. I came back to the office to see someone had written a large & decorative "Happy Thanksgiving!!" on the office white board. It just made my heart heavy. I turned on my computer & found a beautifully sweet thanksgiving e-card that my mom & dad sent. I cried as read it.

Tonight we'll join other Americans for our annual LCC traditional trip to McDonalds on Thanksgiving evening. As lame as it may be, McDonalds is the only truly American institution we have here in Lithuania & we'll feast on chicken sandwiches & apple pie in lieu of turkey & pumpkin pie. The Lithuanian employees will think this huge group of foreigners is crazy, but we'll enjoy it nonetheless. It's our tradition, after all.

Update: We had the largest record LCC group having Thanksgiving dinner at Klaipeda's Mickey D's - 45 people crammed in!

And then on Saturday we'll have our 2nd Thanksgiving tradition here at LCC: a staff/faculty potluck where people bring everything from the turkey & gravy to the cranberry sauce and we'll sit with the closest ones we have to family on this side of the Atlantic & eat ourselves into that lethargic bliss and feel a little closer to home. And then we'll pull out the Christmas decorations & deck the halls of LCC together in preparation for our Community Christmas Program on the weekend of December 7th.

Update: The Thanksgiving Potluck went great with TONS of wonderful food (we even had leftover stuffing - yum!)

Aside from the fact that I'm coordinating the dinner & decorating event on Saturday and the inevitable stress that will go along with it, I'm sure it will be a fun day. It always is. How can you feel sad when your belly is full of turkey and you're hanging Christmas garland & lights? So I'm sure better days are ahead. Right now I'm just exhausted from a long, difficult semester and am missing the comforts & familiarities of home.

I truly hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving celebration today wherever you are!! And if you think of it, pray for those of us far away from the comfort of American traditions, that we, too, will remember all the many ways in which we are so very blessed.