Thanksgiving

We went through the motions of Thanksgiving like zombies. Family came over... my mom took over the turkey and we had Thanksgiving dinner... without my dad sitting at the head of the table. It was the worst Thanksgiving we had ever had. My dad was in the hospital and we had to put on smiling faces and entertain the usual Thanksgiving crowd. It felt off... weird, without my dad there. Me, my sister and my mom later talked about how we were all looking around the room in slow motion saying 'so this is what it would be like with dad gone'. And we felt sick to our stomachs. My dad is the life of the party, always the loudest one in the room and him gone left a huge hole in the household dynamic.
We carried on with the plan of doing a gender reveal for this baby. Definitely not the same happy excitement we were planning and expecting. But regardless, we felt like we needed to try to keep something normal and planned. After everyone bit into their cupcake, it was revealed we were having another girl! The only person left who needed to know, was my dad. After barely eating and anxiously waiting for everyone to leave so we could head to the hospital, we packed my dad up a Thanksgiving meal, including a gender reveal cupcake, and left to see him.
I am so thankful we have this moment on film. My dad greeted us at the door in his hospital gown, looking spry and feeling better (thanks to the steroids that maintained the swelling in his brain). He had such a good attitude like always and was happy to eat some Thanksgiving food and was even happier to see we were having a girl (just like he thought).