Thanksgiving 2012: A new feel on an old holiday

For the first time since 1985, I spent Thanksgiving in northern New Jersey with my immediate family. This, of course, is a blessing, as my parents are quite elderly and my siblings older, busier and scattered. Any time I can spend with any of them – holiday, non-holiday – is important and to be treasured.

In another way, it was bittersweet. For the past 20 years, I have enjoyed sumptuous and loving Thanksgiving, mostly prepared and hosted by my mother-in-law (well, she wasn’t my mother-in-law until 1995, but I still had feasts hosted by her prior to that!). As many of you know, we lost our beloved mother and grandmother, suddenly and unexpectedly, earlier this year. This holiday season is an emotional challenge as we cope with the chasm left by her loving presence that is no longer here. My mother-in-law was really like a second mother to me; we miss her terribly, every single day. The holiday season simply exacerbates that, but we treasure the memories.

And so, we chose to be with our New Jersey family for this Thanksgiving. Of course, Thanksgiving morning also always means a Turkey Trot road race. For me, that has meant running in, or cheering on, my friends in the Mid-Hudson Road Runners Club at the Turkey Trot from Arlington High School. But with us being out of town, I did the next best thing: A quick Google search (“Morristown + Turkey Trot”) revealed a 5K in Morris Township, N.J. My 13-year-old son Joey and I signed up for this race, which turned out to be HUGE! There were 2,284 finishers, WOW!

It was really cold at the 8:30 a.m. start, and our early pace was way too fast. In fact, it was such a shock to my system that I was not certain I could hold that pace for more than a mile. But once I warmed up and got settled it, we had an enjoyable run together. The course was nice – through Morris and Harding townships near where I was born – and it had a few good hill climbs. Not knowing the course, it was difficult to mete out my effort. Joey is now an experienced modified cross country runner, and he is getting faster. I knew I could not hang with his end of race kick, and so it was that he sprinted away from me at the finish – 24:09 to 24:12.

The rest of the day was devoted to family – visiting one of my older siblings in the nursing facility at which he lives, and then eating and drinking with the rest of my New Jersey family, and watching football on TV (the games were actually pretty good this year!). It was a different experience than normal for us on the Thanksgiving holiday: Emotional, bittersweet, but ultimately filled with the gratefulness normally associated with the holiday. We hope your Thanksgiving was a good one.