Thanksgiving Love from Texas

This Thanksgiving I will not be returning to my hometown in Iowa, and it is the first year I have been unable to make the trip home.  Surprisingly, I am okay with this reality.  Why?  Although they will never replace my real family, I have developed a secondary family in the last few years, and I’m excited to celebrate this stomach-stretching holiday with them.

My time in the “welcome to corporate life” academy was the highlight of my post-college life, and the people I met there have forever changed the course of my life.  This Thanksgiving, I will be sitting next to several of these beloved people and thanking each of them for their presence in my life.  I am so grateful to have my friends from Boston and London visiting Dallas this weekend.

For those academy darlings who are not in Dallas to feast at Dave’s, I miss you and am thankful to have you in my life too; especially you, Tommy McD.

As for my primary family, I will be missing you all and hope we are all together soon (preferably during a warmer time of year up north).  Make sure to have a few of the following for me: my mother’s Iowa corn, Aunt Margie’s cream puffs, Aunt Gail’s pumpkin cookies, Aunt Jo’s potatoes, Uncle Gordie’s blue pop (wink), Uncle Richard’s pear wine (careful though…), Aunt Arlene’s turkey and Aunt Tina’s amazing salads.  Brett and Derek, you can have my dessert.  I actually miss you all…not just the food…I swear!

To my hometown loves, I feel a pang of sadness in my heart when I think of the festivities going on at Sportsman’s this week.  Please have a few beers for me, and tip the bartender if she is sporting her Thanksgiving shorts…oh, you know which ones.