Happy Holidays My ...

Sigh, you might want to grab a cup of coffee, get comfy and settle in for awhile. 
And let me start off by saying that I know that I am very blessed. I know that I have a lot to be thankful for, and that there are people in much worse situations than I have ever experienced in my life. 
That being said... here goes. Is it just me or do you get sick of being 'sold' on the idea that the holidays are this magical wonderful happy time with no worries or stress? And for some people maybe that's how it is.. but for me.. well that isn't the case. And this year they've started out more stressful than most. 
Let's just say, this year I'm not getting what I want. For Thanksgiving, I had preferred to cook for my family. And let me tell you, if one more person says "Well it's just the 3 of you" I may lose it. Yes, it's just the 3 of us. HELLO, that's my family. Hubby, Lil Man and I make up a family of 3. Tell me when 'family' was defined by a certain number of people. Maybe your family is 1? Maybe it's 2? Whatever the number is, your family is your family. So I'm tired of people saying that it's really a waste for me to cook when it's only the 3 of us. 
Sigh... 
Where was I? Oh.. back to cooking for Thanksgiving. Last year I cooked for my family and I truly enjoyed it. But this year, well this year I went from thinking I was cooking for my family to 'we are going out to eat'. Say what?!?  Let's just say... instead of spending the day on Wednesday preparing and cooking for our Thanksgiving feast on Thursday, I will be trying my best not to let myself get bitter over the fact that I will celebrating (hard for me to say that word at the moment) Thanksgiving in a way that I don't want to celebrate. But I'm trying to remind myself that it shouldn't matter where we eat, or what we eat, it's being together with my family. 
But as all of this was unfolding these last couple of weeks, it just makes me realize how people 'pretend' that everything is just great and wonderful and magical when sometimes the reality is that it just isn't. When people have asked what I was doing for Thanksgiving, I put on that smile (on you know the one, where you pretend everything is fine when you really just want to scream that it really isn't so great right now) and tried to imply that everything was just wonderful and magical for the holidays. 
Maybe it's time we all stopped pretending and stopped trying so hard to have the perfect holiday season. Maybe it's time that we all got real. Maybe sometimes the holidays are a little stressful. Maybe they aren't perfect. 
But I have to say, they are what you make them. And as I've been telling my son lately. "Do you want to do ____ or ____? It's your choice." So I have a choice. I can make the best of the situation that I've found myself in. Would I have preferred to have done something else? Why sure! (duh, haven't you read what I've written so far). But my choice is either make the best of my new current situation, or stay angry and have an angry Thanksgiving that I'm sure we will all remember. 
I've already told my family of 3 that I plan on cooking this year for Christmas. And next year peeps, I'm planning on cooking Thanksgiving. 
Do I dare say "Happy Holidays" :)