I trust you all had a nice Thanksgiving. Probably watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, visited with family and ate a lot. Then ate some more. The operative word at Thanksgiving is stuffed — ate too many stuffed deviled eggs, enjoyed your aunt’s cornbread stuffing, stuffed yourself with turkey. You get the drift…

As for me, I had a splendid Thanksgiving. Thanks for asking. And I did none of the above. No parade, no eggs, no stuffing or turkey. Parades aren’t my thing. No offense but I don’t have the patience to sit and watch zillions of floats, gargantuan balloons and endless marching bands for 3 hours. I️ love stuffed eggs but didn’t bother making them this year. I️ don’t eat turkey so why have stuffing?

No, I made a selfish decision this year. I’ve been crazy busy the last few months so my Thanksgiving wish was to have a day where I didn’t have to go anywhere; that sounded heavenly. My brother and stepmom were spending Thanksgiving with close friends and although invited, I politely declined. I’m a heel, aren’t I?

My brother and 90-year-old stepmom

Also, my sister wasn’t feeling well and since it’s hard for her to get around these days, she stayed home too. And my nephew and his new wife are in Chicago. Besides, we were all recently together for their wedding, so doesn’t that count? I passed on other invitations as well. Luckily my family and friends understood, lessening my Catholic guilt considerably. I just love that about them.

Now don’t get me wrong; I’m very thankful for the people in my life. I’m lucky and I know it. But I’m especially thankful that this Thanksgiving nobody minded that I️ looked forward to being alone. In a word, it was splendid.

I’ve been burning the candle at both ends, feeling a little burned out (pun intended), so here’s what I did. I stayed in bed until 9:30 a.m. It was marvelous. Granted, I only slept 5 hours but I lay in bed watching the news until my animals decided they’d had enough of these shenanigans and wanted their well-overdue breakfast.

In preparation for this momentous day, I bought what you’d call lounging clothes — soft, thin sweatpants and matching top. I wore those cozy things all day long. I fed the dozen 4-leggeds currently in my house, then sat at my computer with my caramel latte, leisurely answering emails and gradually crossing off items from my To-Do list. Boy did that feel good.

A light breakfast preceded playing with one of my foster kittens, then I wrote next week’s blog. I researched what I’m ordering online for Black Friday, did laundry, considered shampooing my carpet, decided against it, then went back to my computer. Determined not to step foot outside, I did have to venture to my car in the driveway. Otherwise I️ was completely homebound.

Later I baked my Tofurkey stuffed with wild rice (there’s that stuffed word again), made homemade mushroom gravy, string beans and baked sweet potato. Dessert was my favorite berry pie; I boycotted pumpkin this year. (What a rebel.) And yes, my diet starts tomorrow.

I didn’t even walk the dogs, successfully avoiding their forlorn stares intended to provoke guilt. But Thursday was my guilt-free day, remember? I rounded out the night by sitting in front of a fire writing this blog and catching up on reading. Heavenly.

Everyone needs a day to decompress and Thanksgiving was that day for me. I figured I’d be back out in the trenches Friday, refreshed and ready to go. But until then, I decided all that relaxing was exhausting, so I took a nap before bed.

Yep, it was a splendid Thanksgiving.