Holidays + Playoffs = Flexibility

It’s high school football playoff time in Texas.  There’s a chance to play at least 6 more weeks of football and to win that state championship.  It’s also a time when the family schedule can no longer be planned for more than one week at a time.  If you’re married to the coach you understand this fact and you just plan around it.  You get used to planning your life one week at a time and responding to social requests with “I don’t yet. I’ll let you know after the game.” If you’re an outsider looking in, this doesn't make sense and drives most people crazy. Most families are planning Thanksgiving and Christmas and everything in between.   Not so at our house or through many homes of high school coaches throughout the state of Texas. This is when you learn that the best ability is flexibility.

Thanksgiving has always been my mother’s favorite holiday.  She loves the planning, the detail, the cooking, the food and loves to make the day an event.  When I married my coach, her ideas for Thanksgiving had to shift a bit.   Now when she calls and asks “What are we doing for Thanksgiving?” our response is we can tell if we lose or we can wait and see if the team is practicing Thanksgiving morning.   Over the years she has come to embrace the fact that there is no real planning for the day usually until the week of Thanksgiving.  Now she calls and says, “How many do we need to plan for and are we doing real dishes or paper?”  My response is still “I don’t know and it depends on how many need a home for the day.” 

I learned early on in my life from my mother and my grandmother that the holiday is about more than just your immediate family coming together about the day. It’s about sharing it with loved ones from every part of your life whether its home, work, church, school, etc. One of the fun parts of the day was to see who all arrived to share the meal and the day with us.  You never knew if there were going to be 10, 20 or even 30 people when it was time to eat.

Thanks to playoffs that tradition now continues at my house where my biological family and my football family have a chance to come together as one big happy family and celebrate together.  It’s a time to share all the things we are thankful for and having both my families under one roof is a blessing.

One of my recent favorite Thanksgivings was a couple of years ago.  The team was practicing early Thursday morning and then leaving early Friday morning to travel for a playoff game. With no time to leave town to visit friends and family we invited any and all of the coaches and their families to our house for the day. When my mother asked how many we were serving and I said close to 30 she laughed and so ok let’s make a game plan. A sweet family heard what we were doing and donated the ham and the turkey and we took it from there.  It was exactly what you’d call a Martha Stewart Thanksgiving and yes we did use paper plates over china that year, but it was a really fun day. I got to spend time in the kitchen with my mother and my friends cooking, talking and laughing and that’s really what the holiday is about.  It’s about being thankful for your faith, family and friends and all the blessings that come with them. It doesn't matter where you are or how fancy you meal is it’s about the joy that comes with the preparation and then the celebration you have together.

So, what are we doing for Thanksgiving? I know I will be with my family and I know we are cooking. Other than that, I’ll let you know right after the game.

Cheering you on,
Laurel