Post Thanksgiving Bliss

I have never understood those people in our country that get up at 2 o'clock in the morning the day after Thanksgiving to stand in line and wait for stores to open up for their Black Friday Sales.  All the pushing and shoving, and stress that seems to exude from that whole deal has never appealed to me.  Frankly with all the cooking and eating and family fun that we always had growing up on Thanksgiving just wore us all out and the following day was naturally a day to laze around, eat left overs, and recuperate. 

The tradition in the ol Bennett household was to sleep in til whenever you felt like getting up.  There was no rush, no panic, no plans.  Family members would get up at their own speed.  Being that I was (and still am) a morning person I'd usually get up first and make coffee, cocoa, and hot apple cider for the rest of my family when they decided to get up.  My sister Brenda usually was up around the same time and we'd chat, drink coffee, and peruse the newspaper for possible movies we might want to go to or look at the Friday funnies.  And as the rest of the family got up the house got more active.  Some of us would shower and get dressed while others preferred to laze around in pjs.  But no matter what, once everyone was up we'd gather together again for breakfast.  And not just any breakfast.  This breakfast was comprised of leftover pumpkin and mince meat pie.  I can't remember a day after thanksgiving where we didn't have pie for breakfast.  Even since living on my own I always wake up the next day and have pie and coffee for breakfast.  Again this simple meal would last a long time just because we'd end up talking, laughing, and in general enjoying being together.

And the rest of the day would be just as nice.  We'd kind of split up and do our own things.  The guys usually found another football game to watch, The gals would chit chat, play games, go to a movie or just go for a walk.   And when we felt hungry we'd go to the kitchen and dig out left overs to make sandwiches and just graze.  There was no time table we had to follow and frankly it was perfect.  We all have such busy and hectic regular lives that this was one of the few days we could just completely unwind.  And that is something my family taught me that I'll forever be thankful and grateful for.