Yes, that is a picture of me with a turkey. One of my favorite Thanksgiving holiday traditions is our local “5k Turkey Dash”. Thousand of people participate in this morning event where people get dressed up in fun turkey theme attire to race or watch family members participate in the run. Yes, I am a little competitive, this is a picture of me winning 1st place in my age group😀.

The Turkey Dash is one of our highlights of my Thanksgiving, we run, we sleep, than off to a big dinner with our small family of 25-30 people.

Well, this year our Turkey Dash 5k run has been canceled. So now starts the detour of my usually Thanksgivng morning that my family has done for so many years.

Traditions are part of what we look forward to every year, it brings a sense of familiarity and comfort to a day we know. It helps us anticipate what will happen next. Our traditions bring us feelings of a safe place. Building our traditions take time so when we detour from them we feel as though something is missing.

But life happens and our detours are apart of our adventure. We teach our children that sometimes our straight line will have a curve and that we need to bend with it.

When my mom was alive, she decided that no matter what, every thanksgiving she would pay for all my siblings and the grandkids to be together for thanksgiving. She knew that for some of us it was tough, but she wanted to make sure once a year we were all together.

With 6 siblings plus spouses, 7 grandkids that were an amazing tradition we built. We had many years of beautiful thanksgivings together. But life happens and our tradition took a detour. My mother passed away, the grandkids grew older, work and other spouses’ families made getting all together a bit more challenging. So phone calls and visits at other times of the year became our new way of being together. But that was ok! Detours happen and we make them work.

Thanksgiving is only one of many traditions with build, we can make so many .

This year I am thankful for so much, the beauty in the world, the kids In my class that make me laugh every day, the days I wake up, and the love of my family.

In my class this year we made many crafts for thanksgiving with handprints. A reminder that for today this hand is here and present. Traditions start with your heart, no matter where your detour may take you this Thanksgivng be thankful for the breath you take, the love you give, and the family who is your forever tradition.

No detour will ever change that ❤️