Best Thanksgiving Memory

Thanksgiving has always been a wonderful holiday.  While we were in the Navy, Thanksgiving was a holiday observed by banks, the Post Office, and the rest of the world; but not the Navy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have memories of celebrating Thanksgiving on ships, in the air, and days before and after the "real" day, because the Navy had other plans.   There was the Thanksgiving when we invited our vegan friends to dinner and they brought garlic cheese bread.  It was moldy.  It was gross.  But they didn't mind the potatoes and stuffing.  We enjoyed the turkey.

There were many Thanksgivings spent alone.  And for an introvert, it was pretty okay to have some down time.  Many, many well meaning friends tried to entice me to dinners and parties and such.  I sometimes fibbed a little ... had other plans with other (not quite) people, like my sweet girl Allie.   I could imagine nothing more awful than making small talk with family members in tense situations and not knowing anyone.  Instead, when Paul was deployed, I would sleep, relax, read, write, and just BE.  It was awesome.

The best Thanksgiving memory ever was our first Thanksgiving in Guam.  80 degrees.  Sunshine.  Guam.  We invited all the single guys working with Paul on the Niagara Falls over for dinner.  We cooked the turkey, the potatoes (from a box.  Real potatoes on Guam were outrageous $$), and stuffing.  Everyone else brought something to drink and ... a plate, a knife, a fork, and a spoon.  We didn't have enough flatware for everyone.

We were really poor, just starting out.  But it didn't matter.  We had such an awesome time.  Everyone thought the meal was fabulous.  No one minded that I left the little plastic bag with the giblets inside.  Well, no one really knew.  I made the stuffing on the stove top. 

Happy Thanksgiving.  Here is to you and your families - two legged and four legged.  Cheers.