Who knew that a double car garage could bring a family together at Thanksgiving? We arrived at my in-law’s house on Wednesday afternoon greeted with contractors, furniture moved, drop cloths on the floor and much more chaos than one could imagine. On top of that there were five young kids running around among the mess to add to the drama! My first thought was, “Wow!” The remodeling that was done looked great but the mess left over, not so much. However, my mother –in-law seemed to be calm for the moment. I don’t know how she did it knowing that the next day she was expecting 30 people to dinner. I would’ve been a mess! I am the control type and tend to stress over the details and there were a lot of details still left to be dealt with!
The next day, Thanksgiving Day, the whole family began to pitch in to make things come together. After much planning and strategy we quickly realized that 30 people would not fit into the dining area, so we made the garage our dining room. We threw a clean beige tarp on the floor to create a make shift rug , set up some tables and chairs , decorated the table tops with my 6 year old nephews homemade place mats, set paper plates and plastic silverware and “BAM!” we were set!
Within a few hours the once dusty , cluttered garage turned into a family dining room filled with aunts, uncles, grandparents, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, cousins , daughters and sons- a family was joined together! Even after Thanksgiving dinner, we continued to use the garage all weekend for our meals, playing family games, doing crafts and drinking coffee and dessert to end our evenings. It was an unlikely place that somehow turned into a cozy space!
I learned that it is not about the beautiful decorations or the elegant tableware that makes for a beautiful Thanksgiving but rather it was about taking life’s situations and making the best out of them by making memories. I was thankful for the reminder that life is never about the details about the people! My in-laws double car garage will never be looked at the same!
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