I suppose I have a bit of a tendency to wax satirical about Thanksgiving and a lot of "major" holidays.
I think I can thank my numerous years in the retail field for that particular tendency. After all, when you work ”behind the counter” you're often exposed to some of the less charming aspects of human nature, and you become familiar with the reality that many holidays actually give people a lot more stress than joy.
So, today Mrs. Denmarkguy and I headed to the supermarket for the annual sticker shock of shopping for groceries for the Thanksgiving dinner.
As per usual, we're hosting a number of people here; there will nine of us alltogether for Thanksgiving dinner. We have pretty much always done this "big" shopping together... and navigating a densely packed store is often best done with two people.
At least we think so.
Given the fairly stout rate of inflation in the prices of food over the past couple of years, we were not "disappointed" about the degree of sticker shock we got, as we ended up $245.00 out-of-pocket, even after numerous coupons and special offers had been applied. I guess these days ”life is expensive” is simply the nature of the beast.
Get used to it, whether or not you can actually afford it.
Don't get me wrong, I definitely appreciate all the good food. Even though I consider myself a minimalist to some degree, that doesn't always apply to food, just to ”objects” and ”things” which I for the most part have very little use for.
As I have alluded to in the past, I am a "lousy consumer" because so-called "ego products" hold absolutely no appeal to me.
Oddly enough, one of the things I really like about holidays is that it tends to force up to tidy up and clean the house! Sometimes we joke that "if we didn't have friends, this place would NEVER get cleaned up!"
And I'm only half joking!
But it's about to be Thanksgiving.
And much as I might complain about this and that, there are also many things to be thankful for... including the fact that we could actually afford to fund this feast for friends and family.
When I think back across my adult life, it's somewhat interesting to consider that holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and a few other always seem to have been celebrated at my place, rather than anyone else's.
The only exceptions I can think of were during the couple of years following my split from Mrs. Denmarkguy #1, where I was part of an "orphans Thanksgiving" group of people who had no local family and nobody to spend the holiday with.
We had this rather wonderful potluck Thanksgiving in a friends' loft/artist space in downtown Austin.
It always felt slightly surreal, in some sense... which is slightly odd to say, because everything was so relaxed and drama-free, in ways you just don't seem to get at actual family events.
Hopefully this Thanksgiving will be Drama Free™, as well!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great rest of your week!
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Created at 2024.11.27 00:03 PST
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