2013 Best Day of the Year

I took this picture right before we sat down to eat.

I'm wearing sweatpants this morning, which is indicative of two things: I don't intend to set foot out of the house today (you're welcome, Small Town eyes that might have been blinded by the sight), and  it was a wonderful Thanksgiving in the House on the Corner.

This year's gathering was smaller than many we've had in the past. We missed my mother and my mother-in-law, who were probably baking heavenly rolls together and laughing at the really terrible gravy I made. We missed two of my siblings, one working in Australia and one called away by an emergency. We missed two of the Boys and Lovely Girl, who were together but not with us. We missed several of the next generation who spent Thanksgiving with the "other" sides of their families this year.

But the weird thing is that on Thanksgiving, it's as if we're all together. People who weren't here for the turkey, we missed you but we included you as well.We talked about what you probably were doing at the moment we were digging into the cranberry salad and scooping up slabs of pecan pie. We reminisced about how the absent brother can really carve a turkey.

"It's probably a good thing the little kids are at their other grandparents' houses this year,"we said when the turkey took a full two hours longer to cook than I had anticipated it would. We exchanged "wishing you were here" text pictures with the Boys and Lovely Girl in the nation's capital as we all happened to sit down to eat at the same time.

We were thankful for so many things this year, including the gorgeous day after several days of nasty weather.

But most of all we were thankful for those we love, the ones who were here and the ones we were missing.