Thanksgiving

This past August, my family lost my sweet Great "Granny Bah" after a well-lived life of 96 years. When it came time to talk about the holidays, my sister and I came to an agreement that we wanted to go back to what we used to do and go to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving. Now, I said it was my great-grandmother who passed away and at 25 years old, I still have all four of my grandparents in my life. I don't know many people at my age who can say that. So when Bah died, I think my sister and I did not want to take that for granted.

I had several "Wonder Years" moments as we sat around the table that night at dinner...well, The Wonder Years but without the voice of Fred Savage as my internal dialogue. Although the "kids" were still at the "kids table" no one was under the age of 22. And at dinner, our juice was replaced with wine and our morning chocolate milk with coffee. And we talked about things like buying new cars, school, graduation, careers and the future that at 7 year olds, we thought would never come.

At one point Jessie and I were standing outside watching the turkey go into the deep fryer (oh how the times have changed) and she said to me, "Did their yard get smaller?" and I looked around at the same backyard and said, "No. We just got bigger."

But just like the movies, as I looked out into the yard, I could see four little figures all playing on the lawn together, just like we used to. And I am still not sure if what I was seeing was my past, or my future; either way it made me smile.