Family & The Holidays....

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year. It's right up there with the Fourth of July. It's one of the only holidays that is about spending time with family and friends and the food.  I love the turkey, stuffing and the sweet potatoes. By the time I fill up on the main course, I could care less about the dessert. When I was in the gym working out today, everyone was talking about what everyone would be doing for Thanksgiving and the different ways to make a turkey or how they are just having dinner alone because no one is talking to anyone. It's funny how some people just think of Thanksgiving as a day off and would prefer to go to a restaurant. I think how sad it is that family just isn't important to so many people. A lot of people just aren't close with their family, me included. Everyone is so wrapped up and themselves and their grudges to enjoy life. People stop talking to one another and before you know it, years have passed and they don't even know their own parents, children, sisters, brothers, or even their own grandchildren anymore It is funny how people treat strangers better than their own family members. Most of the time, the arguments are over something silly compared to the real problems in life. Is it really worth it? I am really disappointed myself with my own relationships with my family. My children barely know their own grandparents or aunt and uncle. My children think of my husband's family more as family then their own because they really don't even know them very well. I am grateful for some of my husband's family members. They have always treated me and my children as family even before we were married. My children have very few memories of their grandparents. A card in the mail on birthdays or holidays is grandparents? It's sad, but so very true. Even their own father is a lousy father and doesn't have very much to do with them other than a few hours a week, literally only a few hours a week then he drops them off. The funny thing is, whenever you go to a funeral or something by the time someone has passed is when people wish they had spent more time with them or maybe been a better mother, father, daughter, or son. It's the end when they have their regrets and it's too late because they are gone and you can no longer turn back time and fix the things you didn't fix when they were alive. Even when it's your time to go, if they know they are passing the time is spent wishing you had done things differently or spent more time with your family. But, now you can't because your out of time. If you ever learn anything in life, learn you can't go back and change things when it's too late, your time here is limited and don't wait until it's too late to mend the relationships of your family. Love the people around you because that is what really all that matters. Stubbornness and grudges leaves you in a very lonely sad place. Thanksgiving is supposed to be about spending time with family and friends. So this Thanksgiving, I will be grateful for the family I do have. Enjoy your holiday everyone!