A/N: This has not been beta'd. All mistakes are mine and mine alone and if it sucks, it's totally my own dang fault. :P Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving had always been her favorite holiday.
The smells of turkey and pie thick in the air. Counter tops teeming with green bean casserole, jello molds, stuffing with cranberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and other fabulous desserts. She'd stand by the window watching and laughing at her brother and father playing football in the yard with her cousins and uncles, not caring that the game was "for the boys only." She was happy to stay inside with her mother and her aunts, stealing sips of wine, feet dangling from the stool where she sat making table decorations, and listening as the women shared stories and gossip from the past year. The women never minded her presence as she hovered around and she was never underfoot or in the way.
When the table was set and all of the food laid out, her dad and her uncles would come running inside to fight over who was going to carve the turkey, and you'd practically have to shout over all of the noise as everyone talked at once. After dinner, the guys would fall asleep in front of the TV and the girls would clean up, wrapping up leftovers, sipping more wine, and continuing their gossip. Then at the end of the afternoon, everyone would play cards until dark while eating second helpings of pie and seeing who could eat the most of Great Aunt Josi's famous pumpkin-apple cookies.
But, her absolute favorite part of the day came after the leftovers had been cleared away and everyone had gone their separate ways. When it was just the four of them once again and her mom would make hot chocolate and her dad would lay out a picnic blanket in the yard. The four of them would sit huddled together in the cool fall night gazing at the stars and as her dad pointed out the constellations, she dreamed of what it'd be like to fly among them. It had never mattered where her dad was stationed, Thanksgiving was sure to be spectacular. She almost wanted to cry at the end of the day, knowing that another year would have to go by before anything that magical would happen again.
She never realized how much her mother had been the driving force behind those amazing family holidays. Sam desperately tried to preserve the tradition after her mother's death. She invited everyone over and helped her aunts prepare dinner but the family get together just wasn't the same and, with excuse after excuse, few people came by after that first pity-filled holiday. Those who did venture over after that avoided talking about her mother to the extent of sitting almost in silence for fear of saying the wrong thing. And once the fighting between her dad and Mark became a constant during any conversation, it wasn't long before the three of them were left to their own devices. Despite her best peacekeeping efforts, hostilities only grew between the three of them until the Thanksgiving when they'd sat in silence around the dinner table until she brought up the subject of her graduation plans and without missing a beat, her brother got up, walked out, and left without looking back.
She started at the Academy hoping that things would change, but her first year found her spending most of her holidays alone. She'd desperately tried to hide her relationship with her father and his rank but most people found out about it anyway. But after her first Thanksgiving and then Christmas alone on campus, the people around her realized that being General Carter's daughter might not be the privilege they all assumed it to be. She was one of "those kids" that everyone felt sorry for, whose parents didn't call, barely wrote, and left them pretty much on their own. Her second year, her roommate invited her home to Georgia to "experience true Southern hospitality." She hadn't that much fun in years and looked forward to the return invitation Betsy's mom had given her.
But it was in her third year at the Academy that she met Jonas so she spent the holidays with his family that year and the year after. It surprises her sometimes how much those memories of him and his family can still make her smile. He'd helped her remember how good it had felt to be a part of a family that joked and laughed and enjoyed being together to celebrate. She fell head over heels and when Jonas took his first assignment, she devoured every letter that she received from him. They would send each other pictures and cards and he'd send her flowers in class and to her barracks; it was a whirlwind romance for the storybooks. He was even there by her dad's side at her graduation. Smiling, laughing, and desperately trying to win Dad's favor, his loyalty to her was unwavering. And when she left for the Gulf, it was his mother who wrote to share her pride in Sam's accomplishments as well as her excitement over adding a daughter to the family.
With her return stateside, she was given the opportunity of a lifetime when she was assigned to the Stargate program. Catherine soon took Sam under her wing, pushing her professionally but also making sure that she wasn't spending all of her time holed up in her lab missing out on the chance to enjoy some camaraderie with her co-workers. As fascinating as everything was as they tried to make the 'gate work, she knew the importance of taking time off and spending time with your family. She saw the sadness that overtook Sam when both Jonas and her father were unable to come home for the holidays. Catherine invited her over that first Thanksgiving in Colorado Springs along with everyone else needing someplace to call home. Later that night while sipping wine as they sat next to the fireplace, with teary eyes Sam shared some of her favorite memories of Thanksgiving and, of course, her mother.
Despite the difference in their ages, in Catherine she had found someone she could confide in, a kindred spirit. She confessed her growing doubts about Jonas and her career, her sadness over missing her brother, and the fact that she didn't think she'd ever earn her father's respect despite having joined the service in his footsteps. Catherine was the only one she'd called when after his first Thanksgiving home in two years, Jonas had thrown the table she'd spent several hours decorating and setting with the meal she'd cooked herself, over in a rage and then thrown her into a wall. It was Catherine who drove her to the hospital and it was Catherine who held her as she cried and assured her over and over that nothing that had happened had been Sam's fault.
She found herself completely alone the next year, when after creating the dialing program that would make the Stargate work, she was transferred to Washington and away from the opportunity to make the first trip through. She tried to be optimistic about the move, after all, she'd been able to put distance between herself and Jonas, and be stationed closer to her father. She hoped they might actually be able to see each other on a more regular basis now that they were in the same zip code. She was busier than she thought but was able to meet him for lunch a few times. They made plans for Thanksgiving dinner, but he called her that morning to cancel citing some emergency somewhere that only he could attend to. She still believes it had more to do with avoiding those feelings about her mother than any duty he had to his country. So, she ended up ordering Chinese and stayed in to wallow in the bitterness and anger she felt over the lack of control she'd had over the whole situation. Little did she know that her entire tenure in D.C. would pretty much feel the same.
When her job finally and amazingly landed her back inside Cheyenne Mountain, everything was happening so fast what with the world always on the brink of disaster, that the holidays seemed less and less of a priority. Besides, it had been so long since she had experienced the warmth of a true family holiday that it was easy to just pretend that it was something that she didn't have time for, let alone need or want.
It wasn't until Cassie came along that she felt a tug at her heart. There was a need for her to share the family tradition and bring some warmth back to her favorite time of year. She planned everything from the size of the turkey to watching the Thanksgiving Day parade and they had a full blown traditional Thanksgiving with Jack and Daniel arguing over who was going to carve the turkey (Teal'c won that fight), football in Janet's backyard (boys vs. girls), and homemade hot chocolate and Great Aunt Josi's pumpkin-apple cookies under the stars (counting the ones they'd actually visited). Sam couldn't control the tears that fell as they all lay there together, head to head to head in a circle but she smiled when Jack slipped his hand into hers and gave it a squeeze as he gruffly whispered, "thank you."
The long-held memories of her family's traditions fueled her desire to make sure that no one whom she lovedever spent another holiday alone. In fact, Sam couldn't imagine having the holidays without them. She once again smiled as she gazed out the window at the guys, plus Cassie, playing football in the yard while she and Janet prepared dinner and set the table. Both joking about it being the one day a year that they allowed themselves to be completely domestic without complaint and enjoying every minute as they sipped wine and talked about the latest gossip Janet had heard from her nurses and what was abuzz at the SGC. And, without fail, when it came time to sit down and marvel at the table that had been prepared, they all in turn gave thanks for both the family that they had been given but could not be with, and the family around them that they had made.