I am so glad to be on Thanksgiving break. Today, I wanted to ponder the Thanksgiving
holiday for a few minutes. My
Thanksgivings have changed a lot over the years. It used to be a much bigger holiday for me,
and now it mostly means a few days off work.
When I was younger, Thanksgiving was the equivalent of
Christmas in our house. It was a big
deal that was surrounded by family traditions.
I grew up in Pennsylvania, which meant that I usually got an early
dismissal on Wednesday and did not have to go back to school until the following
Tuesday (Monday is that beloved Pennsylvania state holiday, first day of deer
season). Thursday began with my mom, my
sister, and me, eating cinnamon rolls and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day
parade. We would watch all the way until Santa made his appearance at the end. Then, we usually spent the day making our
contributions for Thanksgiving dinner and wrapping presents. Later in the afternoon, we headed over to my
grandparents on my father’s side. In
addition to my grandparents, there were two great-uncles and a cousin, all with
significant others, and occasionally some extra invitees there as well. We would all partake in the usual
Thanksgiving feast: turkey, mashed
potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green beans, corn casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls,
and more that varied from year to year.
After dinner, my grandparents exchanged presents with us. My paternal grandparents did not celebrate
Christmas, but still wanted to participate in some sort of gift exchange with
their children and grandchildren. So we
did all the “Christmas” activities with them on Thanksgiving, and we had the regular
Christmas with my mom’s side of the family.
Over the years, my Thanksgivings have become much less
exciting. It was a gradual change over
time, not an abrupt stop to tradition. My
grandfather died when I was fourteen.
Grandma kept Thanksgiving going for a couple of years, but it was a much
smaller meal. Then, she stopped it
completely, and we started to have Thanksgiving at my mom’s side of the family (big meal, no presents). Grandma also decided that she was going to
celebrate Christmas after all, so the present exchange was moved to Christmas
time. My paternal grandma now comes to
my maternal grandma’s house for Christmas, so there is only one big celebration a
year. The biggest change to my holiday
probably came when I moved out of Pennsylvania to Virginia though. I have not gone home for Thanksgiving for a number
of years. It is too expensive and
time-consuming to go up there more than a couple of times a year, and
Thanksgiving is one of the holidays that got side-lined. Sometimes I have been able to join some sort
of Thanksgiving celebration in Virginia, and other years I have spent on my
own. The past couple of years, I have
been with my husband and his family.
They usually have some kind of meal together, but it is a much smaller
meal than those with which I grew up and never involve more than just his
parents and siblings. The day is spent
much more around the football games on TV than anything else.
Although I have had some rather subdued Thanksgivings in the
past decade, this year I am looking at one of my quietest. My husband and I are not going anywhere. We are not having anyone come over for the
day. We are not preparing any kind of
Thanksgiving-style meal. The plan is to
just stay home, watch football (although that will likely be my husband more
than me), and eat pizza. We were invited
to his uncle’s house to have dinner with his uncle, his uncle’s wife, and his
parents, but he does not want to go. I
was willing to make a Thanksgiving meal for us here to enjoy, but he did not
want to do that either. I may still
watch the Macy’s day parade if I can wrestle the TV away from him for a
while. However, it looks like this will
just be a restful four day weekend for me, rather than much of a holiday. In some ways that sounds kind of nice, but
somehow I cannot help but feel we are missing out on something special.
Regardless of whether you are enjoying a quiet day on your
own, having a big blowout with the family, or something in between, enjoy this
year’s turkey day.
Happy Thanksgiving!
See you next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment