Thanksgiving Won’t Be The Same This Year Without A House
I love Thanksgiving. It’s always my favorite time of year. A time to surround oneself with friends, family, and four walls to help keep out the cold. Now, I know the fact that we don’t have a house might seem especially noticeable around the holiday season, since it’s kind of a McCray tradition to spend Thanksgiving indoors, but that’s no reason to be ungrateful.

Believe me, I miss living in a residence just as much as the next member of this family. I don’t know if it’s the warm feeling you get from not being on the street or the sense of comfort that only comes from having shelter from the elements. But the hard truth is, no matter how much we loved our house, the bank isn’t going to give it back. So the only thing to do now is try and have the best Thanksgiving we can without it—and if I know this family, that’s just what we’ll do.

After all, Thanksgiving is not about materialism. We don’t need a bunch of expensive store-bought decorations of pilgrims and cornucopias, or even places to hang them. 5-year-old Dylan drew a turkey on the back of a discarded pizza box by tracing his hand with my lipstick. If that doesn’t say “This is a McCray Thanksgiving,” I don’t know what does! We’ll show everyone under this highway overpass that this family isn’t going to lie around on our newspapers and feel sorry for ourselves.

Isn’t family what this season is all about? Looks to me like we’re all here—except for Karl, who ran off with that TCBY cashier and abandoned us at a service plaza just off the Ohio Turnpike. But we pulled together and overcame those hardships, and through it all our family has continued to get closer and closer in order to avoid freezing to death by the side of the road. In a way, maybe all this happened to remind us to focus on the things that really matter, like family.

We will always fondly recall sharing the Thanksgiving meal with Grandma, Grandpa, and all of our aunts, uncles, and cousins. We’re just going to have to try a little harder to remember this year, because we’re dead to them.

Look on the bright side! Who needs a roof over their heads when they’re surrounded by such wonderful memories and the good cheer of the holiday season? Just the other day, for instance, I was reminded of the rich crimson color of Aunt Jean’s delicious homemade cranberry sauce when I noticed the puddle of blood Dylan was playing in. And now that I don’t have to worry about holiday weight gain, I sure would love to find a big heaping spoonful of that sauce in the Dumpster!