Thanksmooching Day

Three days before Thanksgiving, I panicked.

The plan was ambitious, of course, but we were to pack out on Wednesday and be in North Carolina for one last visit with my family over Thanksgiving, then drive back to Falls Church for Chris to finish his last week of training. Last time I drove to North Carolina with the kids it didn't go so well-- at least my first two attempts didn't.

So I was frantically sorting all of our stuff into piles for the pack out when I realized that I was actually planning to make a road trip with my three children-- the screamer, the puker, and the whiner (their car alter-egos)-- before the BIG road trip, in which we move to Mexico. Gulp. My stomach did a flip, and I dropped the pile of toys in my arms.

What had I been thinking for months with this crazy plan? The answer: I hadn't been thinking at all. At least not realistically. Chris took one look at me, and immediately went into problem solving mode, which mainly consisted of him listening to me work it out in my own head-- loudly. He knew that if he suggested canceling the trip, he would be the bad guy. But if I canceled it, it would be a good idea. So he listened stoically (his word, not mine) while I sorted out all the reasons why the trip was a bad idea. Most of them consisted of me being stressed out and not wanting to put the kids in the car.

So I canceled Thanksgiving. Well, not really. I'm not actually powerful enough to cancel a federal holiday, but I did cancel all of our Thanksgiving plans. And immediately I felt relieved. But now I had to come up with a new Thanksgiving agenda.

Option A: Buy a turkey and cook it myself. Also cook mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, dressing and pie-- at least. This option seemed more stressful than the original plan. Plus, seeing as how I had just packed out all my spices, pots, pans, cooking utensils and baking dishes, I could probably only cook one of those turkey loaves. Not appealing.

Option B: Buy Thanksgiving dinner from Safeway. That's cheating.

Option C: Ditch traditional Thanksgiving fare and go to TGI Friday's where everyday feels like Friday and not Thanksgiving. They had sent me at least five emails inviting me to dinner.

We had all but settled on Option C when lo and behold beautiful Option D gloriously presented itself.

Option D: Find a friend and mooch off their Thanksgiving. This plan only required me to look pathetic at the bus stop until someone took pity on me and invited me to dinner. It actually wasn't difficult to secure an invitation since we have awesome friends and the foreign service tends to harbor generous people. We had mooched off other friends in Georgia last year for Thanksgiving, so we had already had a taste of how good Thanksgiving with friends could be. So when Option D presented itself, I feigned consideration as to not seem too eager and then hesitantly agreed. "Only if it won't be too imposing," I said.

So after spending yet another Thanksgiving eating other people's turkey, we will now refer to the day as the Second Annual Thanksmooching Day. A new Thanksgiving tradition has been born. Our dinner hosts even let me tell some of Dad's jokes, which was very gracious of them. Any of you that have actually heard Dad's jokes will understand this. To our hosts, we say thank you. You made Thanksmooching Day fabulous.

Thanksmooching Day 2010

Thanksmooching Day 2009