Redefining the American Dream: The Table That Brings Us Home

Every Thanksgiving, we gather around tables that hold more than food. They hold our stories of where we’ve been, who we’ve loved, what we’ve built, and who we’ve become along the way.

When I look around the table now, I see something beautiful: the American Dream is evolving. Home doesn’t look the way it used to - and that’s something to celebrate.

Once upon a time, the dream was simple: a single-family home, a traditional picture. But today, many of us are creating a new kind of home. Often built from necessity and practical solutions to our ever-changing landscape, who we invite into our homes and how we define home may still look like it did decades ago for some of us. And for others, who sits around our table continually evolves.

It’s two sisters buying their first home together, celebrating independence and partnership in equal measure. It’s a group of friends who met by renting rooms in the same co-housing house, where “rent per room” turned into shared meals and years later, they’re still coming together around a table at Thanksgiving, even if it’s an Airbnb this time.

It’s two divorced single moms buying a home together, not realizing how much joy and stability they’d give their children and how, by Thanksgiving, their shared house would already feel like one big family. Instead of loneliness and loss, there’s laughter, togetherness, and the kind of abundance that can’t be bought.

I remember my own Thanksgiving after my divorce. My ex-husband was an incredible cook and always hosted big gatherings in our beautiful kitchen. When that ended, I wasn’t sure how to fill that space, both literal and emotional. But I opened my door anyway.

My brother drove down from Vail. My father from northwest Denver. My mother, already living with me in Lakewood, helped me set the table. My best friend made the drive from Denver, picking up my dad along the way. My parents hadn’t been married since the early 1980s, but there they were, sitting side by side at my table again, not as a couple, but as family, helping me hold that day together.

That’s the thing about family: we make it how and where we need it. We fill the table, one chair at a time, until love outnumbers loss.

Now, years later, I’m remarried and our table is full again. Some years, it’s a joyful scramble with my stepson and stepdaughter navigating two Thanksgiving invitations, my son, my husband, and I squeezing in a little extra room for everyone. My father lives across the street now, and my half-brother, an amazing chef, often arrives with pies from the best restaurant in town.

This year, a friend brought us elk he hunted himself, so we’re opting to skip the turkey and experience the bounty of the land.

I’ve realized home is never static. It grows and shifts as we do. It can be built from marriage, friendship, loss, and love, all at once.

At Pomeroy Lending, we’re honored to help people finance and create those spaces where life happens - in the homes that hold the laughter, the healing, and the Thanksgiving tables where everyone belongs.

From our table to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.

We’re grateful to be part of your journey home.

—

Liana Pomeroy

Senior Mortgage Loan Advisor

NMLS #295506 | Powered by Xpert Home Lending NMLS #2179191

Equal Housing Lender | Licensed in CO, FL, CA, TN & TX

All loans subject to approval. Conditions apply.