A Thanksgiving To Remember

While not everywhere in the world, here in the U.S. Thanksgiving is one of the major holiday - up there with the 4th of July and Christmas - where people tend to be off from work (sorry to all those in retail...) and get together with friends and/or family.  A day of good company, good food, and good 'ol football.  Since we live rather far from each of our families (we're in PA, my folks in southern CT, and my wife's family north of Boston), we routinely travel to one of their places for a holiday each year.  This year, my inlaws got Thanksgiving.  I worked through and including Wednesday, so we packed, set alarms, and were ready for a 6AM departure on a 5.5 hour trip north.

At least that was the plan...

Unfortunately, upon waking, my youngest son was running a 101 fever and, more problematic, a persistent cough.  Normally a late-fall, early-winter kids cold wouldn't be the end of the world.  However, after decades of smoking, my mother-in-law is suffering from chronic emphysema.  She's on oxygen 85-90% of the time, and strugges even with that.  So, anything that makes it more difficult for her to breath is very hazardous.  Worse yet, a cough turns into pneumonia, and then I'm going up for a funeral.  So, after getting some confirming thoughts from my sister-in-laws, we stopped into CT (which we had to do anyways to pick up some furniture), said hello to my parents, and headed back home.  We hit some unsuspected traffic in NY and NJ, but otherwise had an uneventful drive back.

However, in all of this, we can be thankful to Wegmans, a regional premium supermarket who had all the makings for a Thanksgiving dinner already prepared and ready to serve.  Twin brined and roasted turkey breasts, dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes (those we made at home...), corn, dinner rolls, and an apple crisp and pumpkin pie for dessert.  As we sat down around 5PM to eat, I looked up at my family and realized that missing out on seeing the extended family wasn't the end of the world.  I have all I need right here within my own walls.  And...I got to eat dinner in my PJs.