Normally, on Thanksgiving, I cook, bake and the whole shebang. This year, there is none of that. I decided I don’t want to cook or bake a huge meal this year. My husband is working, he’ll eat onboard and I’m ordering pizza.

As I battled with my inner food lover over whether or not it’s okay to celebrate Thanksgiving, without the whole meal, I remember this one time…

My mom brought my brother and I to a gas station diner for Thanksgiving (I’m positive it was an Irving gas station in Farmington, Maine).

Yes. You heard me correctly. A gas station diner. And there, is where we had our Thanksgiving meal. Now, I left out part of the story, just the thought of going to a gas station diner for Thanksgiving is pretty hilarious, and that’s usually how I leave it (anything for a laugh, right?). But in reality we went because that is where my Great-Grandmother wanted to go. From what I remember, the food wasn’t too bad.

I even remember the exactly moment she told us that was where we were going to be eating and my brother and I just looked at each other like she had completely lost it.

Still…the memory just makes me chuckle. It sounds like something my husband might do to our kids just to give them something to joke about in years to come (however, Hawaii doesn’t have very many gas stations that have diners in them…in fact, I don’t think I have seen on since we moved from Maine).

It is okay to celebrate without the gobble gobble and all the trimmings. I’m still grateful for everything in my life, today and everyday. So this year, unlike every other Thanksgiving in my life, I’m going to be enjoying pizza and grateful that I do not have to clean my kitchen, and hoping that next year…my mom takes me to a gas station diner for Thanksgiving (she knows she wants to go back).

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, especially the men and women serving abroad (we’re thinking about you and your families)!