CHANGING THE HOLIDAYS

It was first thing in the morning and I met Steven out in the kitchen. “You know what today is, don't you?” I asked him as I got my tea cup out of the cabinet.

“Hmm...the day after Thanksgiving?” he asked as he handed me a tea bag.

“You know what we always do on the day after Thanksgiving?” I said as put the kettle on and turned around to see him trying to quietly leave the kitchen. “Oh, no you don't!” I cried.

“Oh, come on! The boys aren't even up yet!” he complained as he stopped and turned around to face me. “Can't we just enjoy one more day of Thanksgiving and start tomorrow?”

I shook my head. “Nope. It's tradition.”

Steven shook his head. “Fine, we'll get all the Christmas decorations down from the attic as soon as they're all up.”

I smiled, then went over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thank you.” I said before I went over to the front window. “I can't wait to throw out all our dead mums and deflated pumpkins.”

Steven stood next to me as we both looked at the house across the street from us. “How come their mums are still alive?” he asked. “Even their pumpkins look better then ours.”

“They must have some special power when it comes to mums.” I reasoned.

Steven looked over at me. “Or they water theirs.” he suggested.

The kettle began to whistle and I turned around to go back to the kitchen. “I watered ours.” I said. “They're just really needy plants.”

Steven followed me to the kitchen. “How often did you water them?”

“It doesn't matter now.” I poured the water into my cup, then tried to change the subject. “That's what's so great about today. It's a whole new holiday to decorate for!”

“Yeah...” Steven didn't sound thrilled.

“I don't know what your complaining about.” I said. “I'm the one who does all the work. You guys just bring the containers down from the attic. I'm the one who spends the entire day transforming the house for the holidays!”

“And we appreciate that.” Steven said. “But why can't we just do it over the weekend?”

“And break our tradition?”

“It's not our tradition, it's yours.”

I thought about it for a moment. “I guess I could spend today just putting away all the Thanksgiving decorations.” I looked around the house. “As long as you promise to help me over the weekend.”

“Promise.” he held one hand in the air while the other was on his heart.

I wasn't happy but I finally agreed. “Okay, fine.”

Steven smiled. “Great! So now that you don't have all of that work ahead of you today, maybe you could get some grocery shopping done.” he suggested. “Were out of everything.”

“Are you kidding?” I opened the refrigerator. “It's still packed with leftovers from yesterday!” I cried.

“I know, but we already had that dinner three times yesterday.” he complained as he moved the storage containers around on the shelves to make room for grocery shopping. “Can't we have something different for dinner tonight?”

I smiled as I slowly closed the refrigerator door. “Hey.” I reminded him. “It was your idea to extend Thanksgiving for one more day.”