What Happened??

I'm at a total loss - so much so that it took me a week to dare tap out this entry.  Something unheard of occurred, it might be a trick though, but either way, my siblings and I all had a wonderful, raucous, musical, VERY happy and grateful Thanksgiving!  A few mishaps (my sister Karen sat on the dog's head, he's a tiny thing poor guy) then she slipped in the dip and flopped on the floor (wine?).  We celebrate Thanksgiving at my brother Chris' house, he has the room and the fortitude.  He'd just finished repairing both bathrooms, they were stunning, but the flush was one of those super-sonic things.  My other brother Sean came running out screaming the toilet ate his shoe.  My sister Marianne said it tore the fuzz off her arse.  My other sister Linda thought it was magic (she lives in Maine) and by the way she has saline implants and was the victim of such ribbing about how silly it was, so after her 5th beer she flashed us all.  It was interesting and shut my brothers up real fast, but somewhere in my mind I kept hearing "fake, not healthy".  The oldest Marianne, who moved back here after almost 40 years in Canada (to preserve her sanity) attempted the usual "Let me give you my foolproof advice here" with that "alpha female" thing she has.  It can be annoying after you've already grown up and learned about life long ago, all done without her presence.  So when she started to lecture Linda (the boob girl from Maine) well, it was no-go.  Linda shot back with some great retorts, and Marianne realized something - she had an epiphany.  She could relax now!  No more "eldest child syndrome".  I really think our family is finally discovering their places in life.   

The table GROANED with food, courtesy of my SIL Penny, and as is tradition we digested by jamming out a few good tunes - me on piano, Chris on violin, my brother John on guitar, Sean on drums, Linda on maracas and her bluesy voice, Marianne with the tambourine, and poor Karen just spouting wine-induced nonsense, it was a riot and we had a blast.  We rocked, Karen rolled, did R & B stuff and of course all the oldies from the 50s my Dad taught me.  I can't remember a Thanksgiving this perfect.

There's just one catch:  We have no parents now, and I could sense those silent sighs of relief because we'd realized long before that we wouldn't be tearing out our few hairs trying to care for aging, prolongingly-ill parents.  No child is really up to it, besides you want your most loved ones to get their arses back to God asap, if it's their time. 

So with thoughts of Mom and Dad, we celebrated like nothing else, and there was no guilt whatsoever that they weren't there.  We know we'll never see them as they once were, but they're always with us and it's time to make a tradition of our own now.  Even with all that wine.  We allowed ourselves to let go, something we never could do together before (we hid on Holidays), and to our happy surprise, it was a memorable experience, a keepsake time.

I think I'm finally feelling grateful for Thanksgiving.