A Mormon Thanksgiving

For the first time ever I spent a major holiday away from my family.  Months ago, Mr. Goddard had asked me to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family.  And from that moment forward I dreaded proposing the idea to my Mother.  I'm sure many of you are used to bouncing around from home to home during the holidays.  Already having spouses or siblings with spouses who are forced to split their days amongst various sides or the family, some even split their holidays altogether.  Not my family.  We're a very small bunch and I'm basically the eldest cousin so none of the "kids" are married so I guess I'm forging a new path...

{Drinking the Mormon Kool-aid aka Diet Coke.}

So with my Mother's blessing (she will never give up her Christmas and I'm okay with that) I trekked on down to Southern California with Mr. Goddard and his mom.  A fact that may have been overlooked up until now is that Mr. Goddard was raised Mormon, as a child he thought that family's with liquor cabinets meant alcoholic parents and he didn't even watch TGIF!  A vast difference from my upbringing, I could uncork a wine bottle before I could drive a car.  Now this doesn't mean that I was raised in some loose, alcoholic family... There are always tradeoffs, I went to bed at 8 until my senior year of high school and we couldn't watch Step by Step or The Simpsons.  Some people might consider that to be tragic.  It's all in the eye of the beholder!

{Picking oranges, tangerines, and lemons on the O'Brien's property in Fallbrook, CA.}

So I was willing going to subject myself to religion and a holiday without swearing, caffeine or alcohol.  Sounds awful right?  In actuality it wasn't.  Aside from the fact that Mr. Goddard and I were not allowed to sleep in the same bed or even same room!  I somehow persevered.  The first night I slept in a trundle bed solo while Mr. G slept out on the couch.  Like I've experienced several times over the last 14 months, people are thrilled to meet me.  His friends joke about his wilder days and family rarely if ever met a girl in Mr. Goddard's life so I'm this special treat and who doesn't like being the special guest?

{My awesome princess bed I slept in the first night.}

I never saw any special garments or multiple wives or jean dresses or braids.  Everyone was nice, normal (as family can be) and not a single person tried to convert me!  If it weren't for the lack of coffee in the morning or maybe the couple mentions of seminary I would have never guessed this was a family that went to temple and sent their children on missions etc.  I think they must have liked me well enough because I've already been invited to the next family reunion.  I'm just hoping that if we make it to Utah I'll see some sister wives or at least a sign for Juniper Creek ;)