{"id":2468,"date":"2012-11-26T09:18:44","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T14:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.old.caraghobrien.com\/book\/?p=2468"},"modified":"2012-11-26T09:18:44","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26T14:18:44","slug":"the-6-stages-of-thanksgiving-race-stuffage-shock-acceptancenap-take-out-heave-ho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/miscellaneous\/the-6-stages-of-thanksgiving-race-stuffage-shock-acceptancenap-take-out-heave-ho\/","title":{"rendered":"The 6 Stages of Thanksgiving: Race, Stuffage, Shock, Acceptance\/Nap, Take-Out, Heave Ho"},"content":{"rendered":"

By now, the Stages of Thanksgiving should not be a surprise.\u00a0 After all, we\u2019ve been through the holiday before.\u00a0 But lest you feel alone in your befuddlement, your sense of what-just-hit-me?, let me let me elucidate a little cycle that\u2019s just played out in our home and share a spark of hope.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Manchester Road Race, 2012, pre-race line up<\/p><\/div>\n

1. Race<\/p>\n

The Race stage includes anything you did to show up where you belonged, whole and alive: plane travel, roadtrip, and pull-out couch included.\u00a0 You made it!\u00a0 Yay!<\/p>\n

My family has started a Thanksgiving tradition of joining in the Manchester Road Race<\/a>, which involves 4.7 miles of running and walking with 15,000+ people while 30,000+ spectators cheer us on from the sidelines.\u00a0 I\u2019d be hard pressed to tell you the difference between the racers and the spectators.\u00a0 We come in all shapes, sizes, ages and abilities, and what\u2019s great is that the event is a celebration of the regular, unsung person.\u00a0 Sure there\u2019s a winner.\u00a0 But 15,000 of us trot ourselves out there, and the overriding sentiment is pure, joyful thankfulness.\u00a0 We have health, we\u2019re together, we\u2019re American. We win just because we show up.\u00a0 We\u2019re alive.<\/p>\n

\"\"2. Stuffage<\/p>\n

We eat, do we not?\u00a0 Our particular turkey was smoked for eight hours over cherry wood in a red smoker from Home Depot, and it was super good.\u00a0 Accompanying mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls, green beans, and Brussels sprouts were followed by apple crisp and pumpkin pie.\u00a0 It\u2019s a kind of patriotic duty to over-eat, with second and third helpings for everyone, and still have leftovers to cram in the fridge.<\/p>\n

3. Shock<\/p>\n

Oh, my God.\u00a0 I just ate five plates of turkey and an entire pie myself.\u00a0 My belly is huge.\u00a0 And I\u2019m so sore from running that I can\u2019t get off the couch.<\/p>\n

\"\"4. Acceptance\/Nap<\/p>\n

Others are out there shopping, but I will never be able to walk again because my sore legs are now even worse.\u00a0 Plus, I\u2019m so full of food I\u2019ve gained five pounds.\u00a0 I have destroyed my body. \u00a0I have commenced a new life where I can no longer exercise and my fridge is full of delicious leftovers.\u00a0 This is doom.\u00a0 Oh, look: the houseguests have produced a box of chocolates.\u00a0 I must accept my new life as a slug and take a nap.<\/p>\n

5. Take-out<\/p>\n

\"\"By Day 4, our leftovers are gone, and we\u2019re deciding between pizza and wings for take-out because nobody can stand the idea of more cooking or dishes.\u00a0 Oh, the irony when pizza and wings look like light fare.\u00a0 On the upside, I\u2019m no longer popping ibuprofen for leg pain.<\/p>\n

6. Heave Ho<\/p>\n

How can I possibly have dishes to do after take-out?\u00a0 Monday looms, and I\u2019m allowed one last moan as I heave myself up.\u00a0 I can do this. \u00a0I do not need some crazy diet. \u00a0I need to eat healthy foods and move a little more.\u00a0 That old moderation.\u00a0 Somehow, I shall rediscover the thankfulness I felt in Stage 1.\u00a0 After all, the holiday season is just beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By now, the Stages of Thanksgiving should not be a surprise.\u00a0 After all, we\u2019ve been through the holiday before.\u00a0 But lest you feel alone in your befuddlement, your sense of what-just-hit-me?, let me let me elucidate a little cycle that\u2019s just played out in our home and share a spark of hope. 1. Race The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-2468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","tag-ha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2468"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2483,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468\/revisions\/2483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caraghobrien.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}