Thanksgiving

Traditionally, Thanksgiving has not been my favorite holiday. Firstly, I can never eat very much at once, and as a child my stepmother forced me to finish every last bite on my plate, making what is supposed to be the best part of the holiday into the worst, especially considering her cooking. While my mother takes the food itself very seriously and puts much love and professional cooking experience into her Thanksgiving dinners, I seem to remember spending relatively few of those Thursdays with her. The last was several years ago.

Secondly, Thanksgiving, though originally about peace and sharing between people of two different cultures, has become very much about family. Family is extremely important to me. There's no one I care more about than my mom, my dad, and my grandmother. Unfortunately, I've only seen all three of them in the same place once since I was about four. (At my high school graduation.) My mom and my grandmother only get along for about five minutes until they start talking religion, politics, or anything involving the past, my uncle, my mom's current relationship, money, etc. I suspect the only thing they agree on is what a jerk my dad is. (And that's why I like my dad better.) Then throw into the mix my extended family: some distant cousins on my mom's side, my grandma's ex-mother-in-law (long story), my aunt and uncle and five first cousins on my dad's side - all of them together spanning not only the North American continent, literally from Seattle to Philadelphia to Florida to Los Angeles (and nowhere in between), but all the way to Sweden, Australia, and probably beyond. (Who knows anymore?) On top of that, there's Keithen's family, which I seem to have been welcomed into, and am now expected at all of their family gatherings (on both sides) as well. The moral of the story is: People should never get divorced if they have children, if just to save their children money on extra plane tickets. Oh wait, the point I was trying to make is that it would be impossible to have a complete Thanksgiving, or one with even fifty percent of these people in the same area code, and so I am always left with part of me thinking I should be someplace else.


On the happier side, my favorite Thanksgivings are the ones where I get to cook something myself. I may not be the most experienced cook, but I am very good at reading and following directions. So with a few recipes from the backs of cans and the internet, I've managed to put together delicious pumpkin pie and cranberry dressing in the past. Some day, if I have anything to do with it, the entire dinner will be planned and prepared by myself, and my kitchen staff (who will consist of several talented women who look marvelous in aprons) and there will be no men, or mothers, allowed in the kitchen until everything is prepared. Everyone will be amazed and delighted at the meal which I have prepared. Perhaps then it will be my favorite holiday - but I doubt it. The Fourth of July maintains it's top spot, despite there not having been a really good one since about 1984. (Fireworks AND barbeque??? Come on.)

On a side note, I have a theory that people's favorite holidays tend to be the ones they first experienced after being born. I was born in May, so the 4th makes sense. I've known several people born in September and October whose favorite is Halloween. Please comment if you agree or disagree with this theory. (Does not apply to those born right before Christmas - they seem to lose their taste for it after years of having presents bought with whatever's leftover from the Christmas bonus.)

This Thanksgiving 2006 was, for the second year in a row, spent with Keithen's family. It was supposed to be my mom's turn, but his cousin was getting married over the weekend, so we came down here. There was the usual fare with both his mom's family on Thursday, and his dad's family on Friday. I'll refrain from comparing the two, but I will say at the end of weekend I was fully satisfied, felt guilty for not knowing Spanish yet, and thankful - for a surprising number of things.


The Thanksgiving Holiday (rated against other holidays): 5 out of 10
This particular Thanksgiving (opposed to previous Thanksgivings): 8 out of 10