It's Thanksgiving Let's Pretend! {dealing with OCD}

Well Thanksgiving was challenging to say the least== For the most part is was quiet and uneventful but Dakota had a hard time with the fact that his world was upside down. The was riddled with "faux pas".
The TV schedule was all screwed up for the most part the shows were not broadcast and the ones that were; were on at different times or channels:the fast food routine was a wreck because of course all of us "typical " people would say -- who wants to eat fast food on Thanksgiving??? but everything was closed and to top it off no mail no Banks and no stores open!

The hardest was the fast food---He even said "I just wish the day would hurry up and get over!"So I took him out for a little car ride just to ease the pain of all these changes scratching at his head----after we had been out for a while and we were edging toward home I got the idea of "pretend". Many Years ago a Mom described OCD to me as a superstition. That the act of doing what ever activity, was more about the feeling that something bad would happen to you, more than it was about what good feeling that activity yielded-- So as we got near home I thought why not try "pretend"?

This is what I did. We made it a joke and happy laughy thing-- I turned into the CLOSED DRIVE THRU -- drove up to the speaker and "pretended" to order the food and have a conversation with the "pretend" employee, spoke about the total and said-- "OK drive thru" approached the window and stopped . "Pretended" to hand money to the "pretend" person and got the "pretend" bag of food!! By this time Dakota was cracking up -- he was laughing so hard it was joy to my ears--- He said "Come on Mom lets get outta here-- all I see is ghosts!" I started cracking up and by the time we drove out of the drive thru we were both giggling!

It didn't resolve all of the anxiety for the day but it was a positive step in the right direction. Don't know if the unique quality of that one time was a fluke and it wont work in the future but I intend to keep it in my "bag of tools" and perhaps try it again!
Happy Thanksgiving to all ! Now here comes Christmas YIKES!