Special Mom’s blog

Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating the holiday!

Autism and rituals do not mix. I think autism has a tough time with any kind of social event as it is hard with the sensory overload of noise and lights.

But over the years we have customized things and yes there is no particular food that I choose to cook but I see my family has a formal dinner for Thanksgiving. But for the past few years we have been participating in Thanksgiving Turkey Trot and our family formal dinner happens Wednesday night. That way I have leftover food when we come back from our race.

Of course there was a turkey yesterday but it was a paper turkey who enjoyed watching us have our dinner.

So what happened at our Turkey trot today? It was cold and windy. We cheered our younger son finish his 5k first and then moved on to our one mile family run. We started having flurries and the wind picked up and as my special young man crossed his finish line in twenty minutes we could say we crossed off all our bucket list races this year. Thanks to Special Olympics my young man raced 5 races for free in 2025.

From March to November the weather changed, the course changed and we lived to finish our bucket list 😊. A wonderful opportunity for him to be in the community and be a part of it.

So are we done racing for thr year. Nope! We still have a Christmas eve 5k next month. Unless there is a snow storm we plan to make it. Touchwood.

To finish off this post I just want to emphasize that traditions are made according to the needs of the family. I found what worked for our family that could be comfortable for my autistic son. The turkey trot and a Wednesday formal dinner is our tradition and I am thankful to my Guru and God for blessing our family with the same.