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Thanksgiving with my in-laws was a bit trying because years had passed after we became in-laws before we ever shared any meal together. In fact, years had passed before we shared much of anything together. Conversations were scattered whenever we wound up at the same house at the same time because we had never really bonded.

Partaking in any meal with people that are not strangers to you, yet you feel no connection with, can be testy. So, of course, sitting down for a special meal like Thanksgiving dinner, fits right into the testy category when there is no bond between in-laws.

Normally, when family and friends have dinner together, they meet at the selected person's house at a certain time, and just about everyone pitches in to move things along whenever help is needed. When the host or hostess has the help he or she needs, everyone else usually sits around and talks, and maybe snacks, and has something to drink.

Dinner parties that include people who are more distant from one another than they should be do not generate the same kind of excitement nor enthusiasm as dinner parties where relationships are unrestrained. For this reason, sitting around talking during this Thanksgiving with my in-laws was more stressful than it was enjoyable.

Getting through this Thanksgiving with my in-laws as gracefully as possible, required lots of excess assisting the hostess at the stove or just hanging around the stove talking about whatever. To fill in conversation gaps while hanging around the stove, I took things to the dinner table that someone else, even one of the children could have taken.

At first, it seemed as though sitting down to eat at would alleviate some of the tension. It is almost funny, however, how one can find confinement in the strangest places. I mean... Who ever expects a Thanksgiving Day dinner table to feel confining? Well, it did and asking an in-law to "Pass the dish" please or "Would you like some biscuits" had never before been so un-fun.

As dinner went along, and everyone started to fill the voids in their stomachs, and swallow a bit of wine - those of age of course - conversation became less restrained, however, and before we knew it, no one cared that it had taken such a long time to sit down for a meal together. It was sort of like we all knew exactly what we had to be thankful for and that it is actually possible to be thankful for the same things as your in-laws because we were thankful for each other.

Learn more about this author, R. Renee Bembry.
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