How one student celebrates the holiday
Thanksgiving is not one of the biggest holidays of the year. No one strings up Thanksgiving lights or puts up a tree. We go on about the pilgrims and the historical roots of the holiday, but for many of us, Thanksgiving boils down to three words: food, football and shopping.
I know it sounds like I might be just a tad negative, but the truth is that those are not bad things. They can be, but it all depends on how you look at it.
When it comes to Thanksgiving and eating way more food than any person should be able to handle, you would find my name right up there with the rest of the offenders. At the same time there’s a caveat to that in my family: cooking.
Some of my best memories are cooking up pies on Thanksgiving. My dad deals with the turkey, my mom with the vegetables, and my sisters and I do the desserts. It means that there will be a variety of things on the table. It also means that, at one point or another, all of us will be in the kitchen.
Inevitably this leads to arguments about space, jokes, trying to get the measuring cup, and talking. This is the reason why I have so many good memories of all of the preparation work. It’s not about what you get, but about what you put into it.
As for football, my family has never been big football fans. I suppose that’s the reason that I held onto the stereotype of pot-bellied men drinking beer and yelling at the TV for longer than I should have.
It’s not about what you get, but what you put into it.
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My friends were the ones to tell me that it’s not always like that. Plenty of girls that I know watch football along with their fathers brothers, and mothers. From what I understand, yelling at the players is like talking during a movie, it’s all part of the fun.
Besides, what fun would it be if we all sat around staring at a screen in complete silence? It’s the little things in life that give pleasure, and if that’s screaming when the quarterback fumbles at the goal line, well, then go right ahead and knock yourself out.
As for shopping, we’ve all heard tales of people getting maced, mugged, or trampled during the sales on Black Friday. It might not technically be part of Thanksgiving, but since so many of the sales begin at midnight on Thanksgiving, I’d think it’s safe to count it in.
Again, this doesn’t sound too fun and again it depends on how you do it. If you’re one of the people who goes crazy trying to find the latest Apple product then it’s probably not going to be very fun.
However, if you go to the right shops at the right times then you’re going to be in for a treat. Some stores don’t want to see their customers trampled since it means they’re unlikely to come back, and have started organizing things.
My family shops a little during daylight hours the following day, and we’ve had some pretty good finds. It’s been nothing to shout Eureka from, but there’s a pleasure in taking it slow and looking things over.
There’s no hurry on Thanksgiving. After all, we all know that there is more to life than just the destination. The journey can be pretty good too, and that’s something to be thankful for.
