The Countdown

It's on. Two weeks out from Thanksgiving and I am already beginning to panic, internally of course. I smiled graciously when Mike invited the family (twenty people!!) over in the first flush of excitement upon moving in to the new house. Three weeks later and we have only successfully finished painting one room. Countless unpacked boxes are laying in random places. A new stove sits in the foyer waiting for construction to be completed in the second kitchen upstairs.

Slowly but surely we are making progress but making this house a home is going to take a long time. Adding a major holiday to the drama of it all is daunting. I'm tempted to call it all off. But that's not the spirit of Thanksgiving. It is about celebrating the paint splattered floors and the piles of belongings yet to find their place in this new space. It is about gratitude for all that we have and sharing all that we have with the people we love most and inviting them to be a part of the process. No one on our guest list is coming here to judge us. I should take my ego out of this situation and all of the grandiose and unrealistic ideas about how things should be and just go with the flow. Doesn't mean I can't be just a little neurotic about the schedule of tasks I'd like to see completed by the 22nd. It just means that it's not the end of the world if we are not watching the Macy's Parade in a house that looks like a Nate Berkus ad. All will be well.