Thanksgiving with my husband

Given that the dust settled from The Great Shitty Event in early November, we were very tentative about making Thanksgiving plans.  I knew that I wasn't really in the mood to mix and mingle in a lot of social events, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to be entirely alone.  After all, Thanksgiving is about spending time with family and whatnot.  However, I wasn't super pressed about following tradition - I kind of feel like all the shiny-ness about the holidays is a little tarnished this time around.  Just a little.

My family was going to come down but decided at the last minute not to.  We had talked about driving up to Kansas, but we didn't have the money to board the dog and frankly my heart really wasn't in it.  We had also talked to some friends about coming over but in the end, it was just Drew and me.  And the dog.

Have I mentioned Drew is a phenomenal cook?  Even though it was just the two of us, he went all out.  He looked up some great recipes on the internet and went to town Thursday morning.

My baby was so proud of his work and I couldn't wait to dig in.

Yes, there are two glasses of wine because different bottles must never be mixed. 

And we love wine.

We had ham because I'm not a huge fan of turkey.  Drew came up with this coffee-chipotle-brown sugar glaze for the ham that was DIVINE!  He also made brussel sprouts with sage, apples and sausage, mashed sweet potatoes, and the most amazing fabulous tasty chorizo-cornbread stuffing!!!  He ate the cranberry sauce - we always had it at Thanksgiving but I could never eat it.  Something about the consistency and that sluuuuuurp sound it makes when it comes out of the can that just kills it for me.  It didn't bother Drew - that's cool, he can HAVE it.

We had some music playing in the background, the dog was sprawled out on the floor between us and we had a very peaceful meal.  We talked and laughed and it was so great.  My best friend called and between she and her fiance, they have five kids.  He implored us to cherish the kid-free times, saying that once you've got them there's no going back.  I knew he meant well; I know five kids can be overwhelming at times.  But coming off a miscarriage makes me wonder if this will be our last kid-free Thanksgiving or the first of many. 

Thankfully, there was none of that talk at the dinner table and we were both simply present in the moment, enjoying our fabulous dinner and tasty wine.  Drew is such an amazing cook and such a great person, I'm so lucky to have him.  I've often said that even if we weren't together I'd want to just be his friend.  I really like the guy.  Him on the other hand?  He says I'm a mean bitch and wouldn't want to be my friend (Oh no Andrew - I'm NEVER letting that one go.)

Later on that evening, our friends Steve and Michael stopped by for a visit and we sat outside, having more wine and listening to music on the outdoor speakers.  Maya went a little nuts when they first arrived, but once she had successfully determined that they posed no threat to us or her home, she calmed down and sprawled out on the patio.  I made some pumpkin spice bars (which were very yummy) and joined them for a glass of wine in between checking on my dessert.

It was a great, relaxing day.  There was no running around, trying to make sure we make it to our destination on time, no frantic last-minute running around to get some forgotten indgredient for some dish that we have to have/bring, and absolutely zero stress.  

That's a beautiful thing.