Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been the most important holiday in my family. For fifteen years it has been tradition to rent a house in the Outer Banks with another large family, the Woods. My family and the Woods have five kids, and, now that we’ve gotten older, that has expanded with spouses and children. It has always been my favorite holiday because it has been the biggest deal in my family. My siblings who are married will spend Christmas with their spouse’s family, just to spend Thanksgiving with our family.

Thanksgiving was a time to just chill for a whole week. Meals would be divided between the kids (the mom’s took off cooking for the week because they would cook all day on Thanksgiving). The days are filled with beach football and Christmas movies playing in the basement. However Thanksgiving Day has been my favorite day of the year for so long. Thanksgiving morning I would roll upstairs (the houses were usually inverted) into the kitchen. My mom and Mrs. Wood would already have the turkey cooking. I would go into the living room and peel some potatoes while I watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Then, my brother would try to get everyone to play a football game, he usually tortured us if we said no. Thanksgiving dinner was usually around four. All of us would gather in the living room to pray and share what we were all thankful for. Then the feast began. Turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed and sweet potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and gravy would be piled on to all of our plates. Most of us would end up unbuttoning the top button of our pants to fit all the food. After the kitchen was cleared we settle down every year to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol, which we still watch even when the youngest (me) is eighteen years old. During the movie, usually when our least favorite song in the movie was on, we ate our homemade pumpkin and apple pie. Then we’d all go to bed, tummies full and hearts happy.

But, unfortunately, this year Thanksgiving is “canceled”. Plans fell through and we couldn’t make it down to the beach this year. All of us said it weighed so heavy on our hearts to break the tradition for the first time in fifteen years. I know it won’t even feel like Thanksgiving this year. We will be celebrating Thanksgiving with my dad’s side of the family this year. It will be great, but so different. All I can say is I’m looking forward to next year when the original Thanksgiving crew will be all together again.