Giving Thanks

So I attended my office's pre T Day feast yesterday. Joel paid for the ingredients, and the staff all cooked -- delicious food. Nilda, from Buenos Aires, made a turkey with Italian spices, and some of the Cubanas made pies with apple, pumpkin, and GUAVA. From there I headed to get my haircut, to look pretty for the holidays, and joked with Dania, my long time cutter. Her daughter and D2 met in grade school, and now Lindsay is finishing up at FIU and working at Best Buy. Sure enough, Dania told me, Lindsay has to work T Day. Our idiot country needs to start shopping then, it seems... From there I met Wifey and D2 for a traditional first night of Chanukah meal of Italian food --at Di Napoli. And then Wifey braved the crowd at Whole Foods to buy some latkes and jelly donuts -- which we ate while lighting the menorah -- D2 recited the blessings over the candles. I performed my usual holiday ritual -- fetching the electric menorah from its shelf in the garage -- placing it in the front window, and turning it on. Ah, the benefits of not having to mess with Xmas, and all its decorations. We then debated T Day history -- how long we've been making the holiday just a nuclear family event. I said 7 years -- Wifey and D2 thought it was fewer years. D2 came to my rescue -- I was correct -- since '07 we've been letting the chefs at the Ritz do all the work for us. One year we detoured from Key Biscayne to Coconut Grove, but then realized the after meal activities were boring being on a city street as opposed to Biscayne Bay. So today the plan is for Wifey, D2, and I to meet D1 and Joel, and Jonathan at 1 -- consuming mass quantities, as is our Big Man given right as Americans -- and then walking along the beach for awhile. And the weather is here -- a delicious first cold front of the year is upon us -- I fetched the paper in the early am chill. A high of 70 is predicted -- perfect walking the beach with bursting bellies weather. Jonathan's family has invited D2 to dinner afterwards -- a Venezuelan, Ashkenazi Jewish feast. So she'll go home with him, spend the night there, and meet Wifey and I tomorrow at MJH -- to visit with my inlaws. My mother in law wants to take us to Soyka on Black Friday -- so the eating in earnest will continue. We all met at Soyka right after my Mom died -- 7 months ago. Dr. Barry and Edna were there, and D1 and Joel joined us. This is my first Thanksgiving as an orphan -- though Mom was fading and ghost-like for several years before. I'm extremely thankful for the life and love she gave me, as well as my Dad, and plan to chat with them when I'm seaside today. So on this Thanksgiving/2nd Day of Chanukah 2013, I have no just complaints. Just the peaceful, easy feeling that comes from extreme gratitude.