By: Stephanie Reynolds
In a little more than a week, the official start of the holiday season arrives (yes, I see y’all who have had your Christmas lights up from even before Halloween—I love it!)
I remember the story my parents told me about their first Thanksgiving — too poor to afford a turkey so they had Cornish game hens which were eaten on their new fine wedding china on a stack of cardboard boxes. Isn’t it funny how love can make a feast out of a morsel and a banquet table out of a box?
This is going to be an interesting season for me and The Wonder Sweetie, and maybe for some of you too. Our son is married and in Denver. I can’t wait to hear about how they celebrate Thanksgiving! It isn’t their first Thanksgiving together, but I think it might be their first at their own home. I wonder if my son will make spaetzle (a nod to my German heritage), if they will have cranberry sauce in the shape of the can (a nod to The Wonder Sweetie who likes slices of cranberry sauce), and what delightful traditions his beautiful wife will bring from her childhood. They are their own little family now and need to blend and create their own traditions.
Our daughter has a beau, and his brother and sister-in-law just moved into a new house. I imagine they will want to have Thanksgiving there and will invite our daughter. She too might be spending Thanksgiving away for the first time ever.
We might be empty-nesters for this one.
How does that make me feel? I think I am supposed to feel a little sad, but I really don’t…OK, maybe the teeniest bit, but honestly not much. I pray for the blessing of rest for my incredibly busy son and daughter-in-love who are both working and going to school full time. I want them to rise when they want, eat fully and freely, then rest some more.
For my daughter, I pray for the blessing of branching out, of strengthening bonds that might (hopefully!) last a lifetime. I want them to laugh, game, feast, then laugh some more.
It is an exciting time for both children!
And it’s a little exciting for my husband and me too. We rented a dumpster for that week (hang with me, this is actually going somewhere poignant). I took off work, and we will be spending the week decluttering our farm and house to make space for new growing things—plants, trees, animals, health, and families. We will keep the treasures and toss the rest. We will throw out broken old toys (ours and the kids’) to make room for new projects and hobbies. We will keep their rooms open for their visits but grow up the spaces a bit—treating memories tenderly without making shrines out of them.
I think that is why I am not so sad. To understand that one can hold beautiful relationships and memories with an open hand and know the love won’t slip through your fingers is a wise thing, I think—it gives the children room to fly and a place to land. And it keeps this mama’s heart from breaking full into pieces.
And let’s not let we empty nesters be left behind! Our tables are now rosewood, not cardboard, but we are still growing, maturing, experiencing—living—just as much as we were when we were young and the world was new. To face empty nests not as a loss but as more room to explore, reach, learn, embrace, invite, host, and love keeps these moments from being too melancholy.
So! Let’s look at this holiday, if you too are empty-nesting it, as a time to be thankful for the past but expanding our hearts and walking eagerly to the future. Invite a neighbor or a stranger. Make a list of people to call. Write heartfelt cards to those whom you wish you could see now but hopefully will see soon. Use this time to fix up an empty bedroom for future guests, to plan a trip, to rest yourselves.
I pray the blessings for you that I have for our family: I hope Thanksgiving is a day of rest and branching out, of feasting and festivities, of holding the past tenderly but lightly, and looking forward to the future.
Some activities for the Christmas Season!
November 20 through December 29—Athens Tinsel Trail (by the Duck Pond)
November 21-23—Christmas Open House
November 23—Jazz in the City at the Farmer’s Market at 4 p.m.
December 4—Athens-Limestone County Christmas Parade from 6 to 8 p.m.
December 13—Sippin’ Cider Festival on the Square from 3-7 p.m.
By: Stephanie Reynolds, Athens-Limestone Tourism Association
