26th-Thanksgiving as a vegetarian

I have been a vegetarian since I was 16years old.
I started by not eating beef, then poultry and it was clear sailing from there.....

Thanksgiving is a strange holiday...besides the obvious embarrassment of being the ancestors of people who lied and stole and killed off the native persons of this land.
(well technically, all my peeps were still in Europe...my hubby's fam were actually on the Mayflower and were the first recorded marriage in the new world, true!)

I am not a "soapboxer", any more, I truly believe that people can come to their own choices about food and there is no need for me to preach my choices to them on spoons.

For me, I choose to be a veggie as a teenager in a time when it was still a "hippie" thing to do. None of my friends were veggie and I was an island to myself. I started off as a teenager veggie, eating french fries and grilled cheese sandwiches and not putting much "thought" into what I was choosing as food.
Over time, it evolved into a deeper understanding and I educated myself as to what the secret words for "animal" were in foods...you have to learn a LOT to be a smart veggie.
I became more and more aware of what I was eating, what others were eating and what I wanted to not eat anymore.
I have settled into a life of lacto-ovo vegetarianism....I flirt and swing into veganism now and then, and recently have been reading about RAW food diets.
I don't drink milk, I only eat egg whites when we go out and whole eggs in cooked items.
No seafood, and read labels on all sorts of stuff still....

Over the years Thanksgiving has been a dreaded time, as the gathering often focus on what people have made "special " for the vegetarians in the group...when it is really just me.
So many moons ago I started traveling around now....I would be overseas where thanksgiving is not celebrated and it was easy to "just eat".
This year, we are going to a vegan restaurant to have a meal with my in-laws. Hubby's idea...it is a relief in many ways...I can just sit and eat, and feel not so "special".

My hope is that people just THINK about what they are eating, where it came from how it got there and how it feeds you.

I had my last bite of turkey at the age of 17, and my first bite of pumpkin pie at 27.
I am thankful for all I have learned about food since then, I am glad that hubbys family survived all those years and gave me a great man, I am thankful that my peeps crossed all that land and ocean so I could meet him.
I am thankful for my 5 senses, my imagination, my emotions, my dreams.
I am thankful to be a sister, daughter, wife, godmother and aunt.
I am thankful for being able to read, write and communicate freely.
I am thankful for food on the table, and in the earth.
I am thankful for bad, so i know how wonderful the good can be.
I am thankful for the good , so that I can share it with others.
I am thankful.