Dinah’s Coffee Chat—Day 25/30

On By dinahIn Interconnections, self care, Weekend Coffee Share
Photo by Dinah (c)

Hello my friend.
It’s been a while since I’ve done a coffee chat. It seems like a good time to try again.

So… Come on in and make yourself comfy. Let’s chat…

We had the Thanksgiving holiday yesterday in the US. Whether you celebrated the holiday or not, I hope your day was lovely.

Ours was very low-key. We had two friends over for dinner. My husband had football on TV all day. It was good.

Holidays have always been very challenging for me. I’ve written about that previously. My family of origin was difficult. I dreaded every single holiday. But now we’re at the point in our lives where we are creating our own holidays and I really like that.

Years ago, when I was still doing the holiday thing with family, I fantasized about hosting my own drop in holiday. I used to tell my husband that my dream was to be able to put out a buffet. And tell my friends that the food would be out and available from noon until 6 PM and that they were welcome whenever they wanted to come. Come whenever you want and stay for as long as you want to. I wanted to create a safe haven for people with nowhere to go for the holidays. Or a place to come and decompress and re-ground if they had to do the dysfunctional family holiday thing… I know I could’ve used that many, many times.

We have had some health challenges that have prevented us from doing this in the past. But I remain hopeful that we may be able to do it in the future. Wouldn’t it be great to host a Holiday Haven every year? Wish me luck.

In other news, our weather has been lovely for November in the north. We’ve been around 50 degrees all week. What a gift.

And you, my friend? What’s new? Any dreams that you’re trying to bring to fruition? I hope so!

Wishing you big dreams and the patience to bring them forward!

I’m so glad you’re here 💜

****. The weekend coffee share is hosted by Natalie the Explorer . You can find more coffee chats Here

****This post is part of the 2022 Nanopoblano November writing challenge. We commit to writing a blog post every day if it all possible and to supporting each other in our writing endeavors. All of my cheer pepper friends would appreciate your support. You can find all of their blogs HERE:

19 thoughts on “Dinah’s Coffee Chat—Day 25/30”

  1. pk.glenn1@verizon.net

    Beautiful pics, Dinah!  Glad you enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving with friends.  We celebrated with my daughter and her crew today.  Lots of food and always a treat to see the grands and catch up with our 3-yr-old great-grand.  The long drive over and back went well – one more thing to be thankful for!  

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      1. Honestly, I don’t know! I had very few followers for years. Then I think got Freshly Pressed a couple of times so picked up some more readers. It’s just been years of writing and sharing that work really! ☺️💜 Not that many interact anymore though so I imagine some have moved on from blogging.

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  3. Hi Dinah,

    I had the classic good experience of great family holidays until I married. I was the one Protestant in a sea of Catholics most of whom were/are wonderful but a few, three adult brothers (one who was my FIL) were um, volatile and always picking verbal fights that for some reason I was expected to participate in.

    After three thanksgivings of being singled out for arguments, I was ready to tell my bride that I’d had enough and would no longer be attending but things changed when one passed away and I tried a different tactic with the remaining brother who was not my FIL I essentially cut him off from conversation by telling him it had become clear that he did not want to discuss anything with me in an honest way and that he only wanted to argue. I told him I was not interested in wasting my time and thoughts on him. It caused something of an explosion but I survived and he didn’t. My FIL, passed away a few years later and the remaining brother has not come back to the family thanksgiving. Beneath the veneer of hostility at these events was a new family for me who I’ve come to love and love me despite our differences.

    I think I lucked out huge!
    I hope your family get-togethers only get better going forward. Life is so much better without all the drama.

    Blessings.

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  4. Hi Gary
    My family of origin is gone, all deceased. I’m the last one. But, when they were alive, I was the odd duck in every possible way….oil and water. I don’t “pretend” well. If something was weird or uncomfortable I’d address it, much to the chagrin of the conservative majority….
    Now, hopefully next year, we’ll start my holiday haven plan to provide a happy place for people with unhappy family dynamics. Fingers crossed!

    Glad your in-law thing worked out for you. Nobody should be attached!
    Happy weekend my friend 🌺

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  6. I love love love the idea of a holiday haven. We don’t do thanksgiving but this has certainly given me an idea to do something similar JUST BECAUSE, lol. Just because we need people in our lives. W need light and warmth and laughter in our homes!

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  9. For many years my friends and I would do a Friendsgiving. It’s usually around Thanksgiving, either before or after. It is and continues to be an event to decompress and vent out about family drama. As we’ve gotten older it has been harder to organize due to health problems or we have more family obligations. Regardless of the turnout or when it happens, we always have fun.

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    1. What a great idea! I know friendships get harder to maintain with work and kids and aging parents….
      But I hope you can keep it going in some form! Friends are so important!
      💜🌺💜

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  10. Hi Dinah…Welcome back. I was MIA last week and trying to catch up on some posts though from others before writing my post for this week. Your photo at the beginning is beautiful. I also LOVE your idea for the drop in holiday. I need to give this some thought. I’d like to try it.

    Liked by 1 person

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