Is Thanksgiving Too Stressful?

After writing about whether Halloween is too scary for toddlers, I started thinking about whether Thanksgiving is too stressful for grownups.  Today is the biggest travel day of the year.  People across the country are battling snow and rain to make it home.  Yet, how many people these days have the Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving that they yearn for, especially as they sit in traffic in the snow or their plane is delayed?  

This holiday season has been very stressful for us.  We try to make each side of the family happy.  But how do people really make two families happy, especially when everyone wants to spend time with their gorgeous grandchild/grandchildren?  The other day I talked to some empty-nesters whose son wasn't planning on coming home for the holidays for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  

This year I wanted to rent a beach house at Half Moon Bay and invite one side of the family on one day, and then the other side of the family the next.  It just didn't work out.  Since we are doing some work on our house, we decided to go out to dinner this year.  I hope I can take some time to contemplate what I am grateful for, relax, and enjoy the moment.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Just for fun, I'll be sharing a few ideas I've thought would be fun- maybe next year!

-TC Mama

Is Halloween Too Scary for a Preschooler?

It is almost Thanksgiving, it is getting colder, wetter, and my son is attending "Turkey Camp" for two days starting tomorrow.  

Yet, what he is still talking about is whether Halloween is too scary.  I regret our Halloween plans because he is STILL talking about how Halloween was too scary!  The best part of Halloween for him was passing out candy.  But the actual act of trick-or-treating was too scary.  

Why?  

Well, a few things came up while trick or treating:

- literally at the very first house we went to, our neighbor held out a bowl.  It had a moving electronic hand in it, triggered when you approach the bowl to take out a piece of candy.  It terrified our son.  At every other house on Halloween night, he asked, "Is there a hand in the bowl?"  

-at another house down the street, a woman opened the door with a fake meat cleaver sticking out of her head.  She told my son, "This is why you need to be careful with knives!"  Ever since, he has walked around telling us (and others), "You need to be really more careful with knives!"  When we walk past the house, my son asks, "Is this where the woman with the knife in her head lives?"  He runs past as quick as he can.

-other houses included displays with bats, ghouls, scary music, flying ghosts, shall I go on......?

Next year, I'm going to have my son pass out candy.  For now, I think trick-or-treating may just be too scary!

--TC Mama