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Happy Thanksgiving!

    • 122 posts
    November 23, 2017 10:33 AM EST

    Hi there, all!

    As I sit here in a warm kitchen, sipping scalding hot coffee, I'm surrounded by anxious parents who want to make a perfect holiday and nearly a dozen dishes waiting to go into the oven, smoker, or onto the grill. I wish I could describe the smell of sweet and savory spices to you, and how they seem to fill the entire house with a kind of alchemical perfection, but I'm afraid the coffee has yet to take effect, and my words are too limited. I can only say the air is so fragrant that it can be tasted whenever you take a deep breath, and that it smells like happiness, like every good time you ever had with beloved friends and family, both those you are still lucky enough to see as well as those who you only see in your memories of days gone by, days like this.

    It's been an interesting year for me. I've gone from being grateful for being underemployed in a store where I have a good boss to being grateful for being slightly overemployed, in a new job which is an actual career move, where I am challenged daily and always told that my progress is impressive for all the times I find myself falling short. A good friend of mine and I finally took a chance and went on a dry, boring, adult date to an art museum, and we found that we fit together so well that we were a little bit scared. We'd already been there for one another through hard times, after all. It was just a shock that sharing the good times was so, well, good (again, not enough coffee yet). I'm going up to visit her and our other friends this evening, and I'm going to enjoy a weekend with people I adore.

    Fantastic changes, so good they're almost overwhelming in the amount my life has shifted if I stop and think about them for too long. There are problems too, of course, like there always ever are. I'm learning to handle work stress and trying hard to keep afloat in an industry that always seems to have people who are overloaded, but ultimately the new problems are good problems. I catch myself worrying about the stability of the housing market while I'm saving for a house, and then have to catch myself and realize that I'd believed owning a home in my area would be _impossible_ with my income.

    Friends, family, progress, new hopes and dreams, challenges, good problems, and you guys. That's what I'm thankful for this year.

    I am well aware there are a great many of us vaulters who don't do Thanksgiving either by choice or because they don't live in a country where Thanksgiving is the norm, and I hope you don't feel excluded by my posting here. In fact, I encourage you to go along with the premise of the holiday as it is now, even if you don't have turkey and pumpkin pie, and consider the good things in your life that you'd be willing to share.

    So c'mon, Vaulters, what are you thankful for this year? What are the good things in your life?

    • 558 posts
    November 23, 2017 12:25 PM EST
    I'm thankful that I don't have a debilitating chronic illness. I'm also thankful for free games, because, well, they're free.
    • 585 posts
    November 23, 2017 12:54 PM EST

    I'm thankful that I don't have to celebrate this crazy holiday :P Everyone on the internet seems so stressed about it, I'm glad I can relax without crazy relatives or too small ovens!

    Seriously though, it's been a pretty good year for me I'd say. For those who don't know what Sixth Form in England is, it's the part of education you get from 16-18, where you can really specialise what subjects you want to study and get some academic freedom. Well I buggered up my first year of this, chose the wrong school and basically made a shambles of the whole year. But in September I started the year again at a new school and it's already looking way better. Not exactly world changing, but now school isn't shit, its ok, and that's all you can really ask for innit? Plus as I'm a year older than most of the people in my year I'm really wise and knowledgable and stuff. Or, you know, thats what I tell myself :P Still haven't learnt to worry about exams or how to be stressed at all, but one ste at a time eh?

    Plus these younglings have no idea how to party. I'm about to turn their world upside down.

    • 152 posts
    November 23, 2017 1:10 PM EST

    Well unfortunately I got dumped by who I thought was to be the love of my life three days ago, I have to work right during Thanksigivng dinner time and don't get to see my family, AND I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder last week...yet I still find myself with so much to be thankful for. The second things went bad, I had friends, old and new, sweep in to lift my spirits, the financial capability to afford treatment for my disorder, and this awesome site with which I can come post and read and participate to my hearts content as I await the clock to change to the start of my Thanksgiving shift. Sometimes even in the shittiest of times, its taking a moment to count your blessings that can really boost you out of an unbreaking sullen mood. Love you guys, everyone enjoy your Thanksgiving and eat some extra turkey for me

    -a not so mad anymore Mannatee

    • 649 posts
    November 23, 2017 2:00 PM EST

    So this is how it works? You say what you are thankful for? Sorry, Thanksgiving ain't a thing here. Well, then I guess I am thankful for Bethesda Creation Club, really changed my life... :D

    But seriously now. I'm thankful for all my friends, be they from next doors or those here on the site, such as Lis, Tein, Phil and Harrow, cause they're all awesome and make every day a little bit brighter. :)

    • 20 posts
    November 23, 2017 3:00 PM EST
    I just ate thanksgiving dinner (lunch really), and I’m so thankful that I’ve finally been able to sit down and eat a real, full meal. I’ve had strep throat since Sunday and it’s been giving me horrible headaches, body pain, and of course swallowing anything feels like a knife in my throat, so eating has been a sparse occurance. Mostly limited to just snacking on some noodles or crackers with camomile. This is the first day where the pain isn’t really there since the antibiotics are really kicking in now, and after 4 days of tiptoeing around eating, it feels so good to gorge myself :D That and the support I got from my girlfriend and the rest of my friends who helped me out and made me feel better while I’ve been feeling bad. This site too is always fun for me to jump on and read around, even if I’m not very active as I wish I was. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
    • 295 posts
    November 23, 2017 3:56 PM EST

    I am super thankful for my new job, my health, my family and my extended family. But I am most thankful for my wonderful fiance, who has given up everything to be with me. :D I am thankful for wine and the joys of cooking, so for him, I cook this. 

    The Long-chapper's house has the following served up for Thanksgiving dinner...

    1. No oven, so simmered turkey breast in Gewurtremiener, onion, and Caribbean spice sauce. A Heady mix of allspice, nutmeg, cumin, pepper, salt, and others

    2. Sweet potatoes sauteed in olive oil, garlic, and bacon

    3. Stove top Spanish rice cooked with butter and chicken stock. 

    Lol, all done with naught but two burners and three pots. :D And quite a bit of wine was drunk. Hehe

    Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Hugs from Texas!

    • 248 posts
    November 24, 2017 11:14 PM EST

    Thankful for my amazing wife. Finding your forever other is very often a circuitous and harrowing journey. There's no way for me to relate the enormous expanse between the trials and pain of where I've been and the joy of where I am now. Try to learn from the tough times, because if you can do that, you'll continue to become a refined self...and if you can learn to know, trust and love yourself, you'll be ready to be that for someone else. 

    So hang in there! 

    And if you've already found them - congrats :)

    I also want to add, the holidays can be a rough time for a lot of folks. Be kind. And if you're feeling in trouble yourself, reach out. There's always help to be found. Hell, look around at this collection of awesome wierdos! Who would have thought we'd all get to hang out and create art out of our favorite games? 

    Happy Thanksgiving Tvaulters!