I survived Thanksgiving!

My family is small and we've always had small holiday gatherings, that is until my sister and I married our dudes.  I wanted to host Thanksgiving this year.  Why? Because I wanted to take my beautiful Royal Doulton Opalene China out of the boxes that it came in and use it!  Check it out...I smile every time I look at it : ) (It has a opalescent mosaic pattern on the outer edge; pictures don't do it justice!)

The original list was Mr. GG and myself, my sister and her husband, my mom and step-dad, and my uncle.  Within a short week the number jumped to 20.  How?  Well, we were going to just stick to my side of the family, but we thought we'd extend courtesy invites to Mr. GG's side as well.  Miraculously, everyone decided to show up!  Yay! : /

Segway: we've lived in our house for over 3 years and haven't changed a whole lot.  I decided that I wanted to redo the dining room.  On Monday, I shopped and designed with my mom.  On Tuesday, my sister and I painted and by night-time, it was done! It was a lot of work with a very hard and fast deadline, but I got it done.  Phew.  Mr. GG said he thought I added value to our house : ).

All day Wednesday, my mom sister and I shopped, prepped, cleaned, and set the tables.

But this post is about surviving Thanksgiving.  All of the above was stressful and took a long time, but it wasn't the hardest part.

Out of the 20 guests, 9 were woman, 4 of child-bearing age.  Two are pregnant: my sister at 10 weeks, and our good friend at 15.  One, my sister-in-law, is the mother of an18 month old and has just started trying for number 2.  And the last one is me.  Barren, child-less, Mrs. GG.  So it was entirely possible that I was the only female not pregnant at Thanksgiving dinner.  (That is assuming that my sister-in-law is already pregnant, but early on.  I would not be surprised.)

Don't get me wrong.  I am not slightly bitter towards these pregnant ladies.  My sister is pregnant after a miscarriage and my friend is pregnant through IVF after trying for 2 years.  I'm thrilled for both of them!

The problem was in my brain, well also a little, no a lot, due to my sister's mother-in-law who was also a Thanksgiving guest.  My sister had her first ultrasound on Tuesday.  So, when Sister GG's MIL, let's call her Carol, called on Tuesday to discuss dishes to bring, this is how the conversations went:

Carol: "Hi Auntie GG, it's Grandma Carol."
Mrs. GG: "Blech." I mean "Hi Carol..." (Eyes rolling into the back of my head)

Um. You're not a grandma yet.  Stop calling it a fetus. And this is beyond awkward to be talking with you about.

Later at dinner she made my sister and BIL take pictures with him holding her belly to send to all of her friends.

Cue refill glass of wine.

As I was trying to sleep Wednesday night, I imagined that the entire dinner would consist of baby talk, that "Grandma MIL" would incessently gush about her excitement, and that she would start bugging me about when I was having a baby.  Then, I would snap and go off on her and embarrass everybody.

Thankfully, none of this happened.  I drank my wine while the rest of the ladies sipped on ginger ale and grenadine and we had a nice Thanksgiving meal.

I am extremely fortunate to have a mom that is sensitive and thoughtful and friends who are the same way, but the next time I come across someone who's not, I've already decided what I'm going to say.

Mister GG and I have decided not to have children.  That should end it, right?

How was everyone else's Turkey Day?