Thanksgiving

I was back in Chicago this weekend celebrating Thanksgiving with my family and seeing my 8-month old nephew, Colin. Between spoonfuls of mashed potatoes and dressing, I paused to look around the table (that extended from one end of the dining room to the other end of the living room) at the 4 generations of the Daugherty clan gathered round it. It was good to be home.

Living thousands of miles from family for the past 3 and a half years, I've come to really appreciate today's 'urban families', made up of friends who are also geographically separated from loved ones. I haven't gone home for Thanksgiving in several years, and there have always been groups of friends throwing some kind of potluck food-fest in honor of the holiday. Since so many of my generation live far away from home, friends stand in to fill roles that family has traditionally held. And that can be such a blessing. From sharing holiday meals to taking each other out for birthday dinners, or simply going for a walk after a bad day, my friends have, in so many ways, become something like a family to me.

But as I looked around that table this past week, I realized how irreplaceable family really is. Sure, it's fun to try and replicate Grandma's time-honored dressing recipe and laugh at how poorly it turned out with friends who also can't cook their way out of a paper bag. But there is something about sharing a holiday with people who know you almost better than you know yourself, and who love you in spite of it. As I sat at that table, I thought about all the Thanksgivings before this one that I have spent with the same familiar faces. I remembered the magic of going to visit Grandma's as a kid, and laughed to myself about all the silly things my cousins and I used to do.

You have choices in your friendships, but family, well, they are yours whether you like it not. So this year, what I am most thankful for is that the people I'm stuck with, my family, are the ones I am most grateful to be able to spend time with.

Happy Thanksgiving!