Thanksgiving

All the college kids were home for the Thanksgiving break

Aunt Megan was here from Jamaica

Cousins and friends lounged on my bed chatting

My son made candied yams using his Grandma's recipe

My other cousin came in from Trinidad

The boys had a fine old time joshing with my husband

The girls found time to check the social networks

This year, most of my mother's clan gathered in West Palm Beach, Florida for a Thanksgiving family reunion, traveling from Jamaica and the Bahamas, and Canada and Virginia and Marlyand for the weekend. Meanwhile, we were an outpost in New York, receiving photos and texts from our relatives down South, with news of splashing in pools and playing inter generational soccer, while we took a meal together and generally enjoyed a low key Thanksgiving. Every person here was a soul I am deeply comfortable with, and so my usual angst and feelings of overstimulation abated, and I just let myself be in the moment, aware of the goodness of it all.

My husband cooked the melt-in-your mouth turkey and most of the rest of the meal, too, though I made my famous corn and cheese souffle and my son called his grandmother as usual to be talked through the steps for the candied yams, while one cousin made a potato salad and another acted as sou chef. Other family and friends arrived with plantains and blueberry cranberry sauce and all manner of pies, and it was once again a feast.

My niece was sorely missed, but she sent us missives from the reunion, including a picture of my brother's children cuddled with my 85-year-old aunt and the caption, "Aunt Grace smells so good!" My mother couldn't be there with the rest of them. Travel is too hard for her now, so she stayed in Jamaica with my sister in law. When I knew she couldn't go, it was then I decided that our family would just stay put as well and host our usual crew. We don't really have the funds for multiple air fares and hotel rooms, and the relief and happiness in my cousins on my dad's side, and my friends who usually do Thanksgiving at our house, made me really happy that we decided to stay home.

Our numbers were slightly reduced by the Palm Beach reunion, but a good time was definitely had in New York City as well. At midnight the party in both places was still going strong, and there were women I love lounged across my bed sharing easy meandering talk of our lives in the way women do. The photos here are kind of random. The lighting in our house was dim, and I didn't take as many pictures as usual, but that's what comes of just being in the flow.