Thankful My Kid Woke Me Up At 6 A.M. On Thanksgiving Day

My youngest son woke me up shortly after 6 a.m. today.

"Get up! It's Thanksgiving!!"

What in the world???

When you've gone to bed a mere three hours beforehand, and you're having an awesome dream with Orlando Bloom in it, being woken up so early is the last thing you want to happen.

OK, no, that's not quite true. The last thing you want is for an epic earthquake to jolt you out of bed.

Or to wake and find that all those awful Nostradamus prophecies have come true all at once.

Or to discover you've been infected by bubonic plague.

Don't you agree those things would totally suck like ten times worse?

Anyway, sleepy time was definitely over for me because the boy started listing off all the things he was thankful for. "I'm thankful for you, mommy, and my teacher and my Nintendo DS, and..."

He kept adding things to his list for a good five minutes.

I made a "Things I'm Thankful For" list a couple of days ago. It's a good exercise since sometimes life can seem like one tough slog. I admit I feel a little shallow putting stuff like, "I'm thankful Depeche Mode keeps making music," on there, but I'm just keeping it real. I think it would be good for me to review and add to my list more frequently.

Anyway, in the hours since he interrupted my, ahem, "nap", my son's asked me every five minutes, "Is it time to go yet?"

We're going to my awesome, amazing friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner, but my boy could care less about the food.

Mister, "I only eat fried chicken!" hates turkey. He wouldn't touch mashed potatoes with a 10 foot pole. Your tastiest casserole will not pass his lips. Cranberry sauce might as well be poison. He can't stand candied sweet potatoes and he despises pumpkin pie.

I'll be lucky if I can get him to eat some dinner rolls and salad. Last year I think he went over there and ate plain rice with ketchup.

So why is he so excited? Because he knows what we adults sometimes forget: Thanksgiving is about relationships, not food. It's about spending time with your friends and family, even if all you have to eat is peanut butter and jelly. -- Actually, I think he'd prefer PB&J to all the other food.

Too often we adults agonize over the stuff that surrounds holidays like Thanksgiving. We worry about whether the pumpkin pies we baked last night are going to be edible or not. We stress out over the cleaning and cooking and dealing with relatives that sometimes (or all the time) work our nerves.

Maybe this is why holidays are always the best when you're little - because you still have that innocence, that excitement that makes you jump out of bed at 6 a.m. to tell your mom to get up because it's Thanksgiving.

I hope you know how much I'm thankful for you, the folks who take the time to come here and read my blog. Some of you are like family to me and I appreciate you for adding something special to my life!

Happy Thanksgiving!