Is it about the food?

I made it through this very scaled down Thanksgiving. Instead of 52, there were 12. A tad disappointing since it will probably be a year before I have an opportunity to see some of the family that was missing.

I had limited food options but had plenty to eat. If I had not brought my own food, I would have had nothing but dry potatoes to eat. I had ham, sweet potatoes, dry potatoes, and cranberry sauce for dinner. All of which I had to provide at least some ingredient to make it dairy free. Everything else, including the turkey had dairy in it. I was disappointed but not hungry. It wasn't exactly the feast I had hoped for. Mom promised me that Christmas dinner would have turkey and stuffing I could eat. Mom and I both made pies I could eat so I did get dessert even if it wasn't the fantastic looking double cheesecake.
Having a food allergy makes me dread food related events. I try to skip them when I can but I can't miss all the family events. We make food the center of so many events and I've had to really evaluate what it is that makes these events special. I love food and always look forward to having a large variety of flavors to try. When I take away this anticipation and focus just on the family visit, I'm not quite as enthusiastic. Mostly because groups of people are hard for me, even if they are all family. I helped in the kitchen and then spent most of the afternoon knitting and listening. Three year old Carter crawled into my lap to help me knit and engaged me in several conversations. I had an intense moment of de ja vouis when I realized that 12 years or so ago, it was Carter's uncle who was crawling into my lap to play with string. Now he's a strapping young man and I feel old.