In honor of Thanksgiving, I've decided to do a bit of a different post. While many states in the U.S of A have decided to celebrate Thanksgiving like our ancestors by threatening to secede from the Union, that is not the case in the blue state of California (in case you are looking, you can find the Republicans in Orange County). Instead, most of us are getting our tans on while waiting for the gluten free stuffing and the vegan tofurkey to finish cooking in our solar powered ovens. This, my friends, is probably not what our ancestors had in mind when they decided to kill off all the Indians in order to give us this great holiday.
Thanksgiving is the greatest of holidays for a few different reasons. The reasons are as follows:
1) It isn't religious. There is no debates over the religious meanings behind it (shout out to the one atheist and three Jews in my family who make up the religious minority at every holiday dinner table!) No one is here telling me that Jesus wasn't actually born on December 25th or that it isn't plausible that the oil actually lasted 8 days. Instead, we get to just be together. Which brings me to my next point...
2) Its all about the food. It is the only time that my health conscious mother will ever admit to her affection for mashed potatoes or where it is appropriate to put marshmallows on yams. There may not be too many things that all of Americans agree on, but looking at the current obesity epidemic, I would say it is a safe bet that we all agree on our love of food.
3) Speaking of our love of food, it is the best holiday because it is the only time anyone ever let's me cook. Cooking on Christmas is out of the question as my parents have me scheduled at a different holiday event starting from the moment I wake up on Christmas Eve to the moment I go to bed on Christmas night. Gotta love the Italians and there obsessive celebration of anything having to do with anyone being born (celebrating my Grandpa's birthday requires me to put aside an entire week of my summer every year).
4) It also reminds me how much I do love my family. Since its the first holiday in the long season, I am more accepting of the chaos and ultimate hissy fit someone will throw at the table. It is also the only family dinner where we don't make pasta (although my grandma has unsuccessfully tried to work it into the menu every year) and that is more than enough to be thankful for.
5) No Thanksgiving would be complete without being thankful for my friends. We may have celebrated thanksgiving 2 weeks ago at scholarship dinner, or for some of you not at all, but I am way more thankful for you all than I may let on. I may instead decide to play the role of Dictator Peaches and not be Little Miss Sunshine any of the time, but thank you all for putting up with my sass and my near daily indecisiveness on life's smallest issues. You all have truly made USC my home away from home (and to my friends at home, thanks for continuing to make home feel like the home I left 3 years ago!)
Lastly, I must give credit where credit is due. Thanks to my BFF Hannah Gilden and her blog for inspiring me to write this post. I hope one day I can be half as sassy as you are.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and good luck with any family dysfunction this holiday may bring!
Madison - That's a wonderful, sassy blog. Funny, honest...Loved it! Keep up the writing...! Aunt Jill :)
ReplyDeleteI agree! It's nice to have a non-religious holiday that is actually celebrated! It's virtually the same meal as Christmas yet the purpose has evolved strictly to be to bring the family together. My high school plans its reunions around the holiday, and for those of us at college, it's the first time in three months that we've seen our families! What better way to celebrate a homecoming then a holiday about giving thanks? While it's original message may not have been so friendly, what it has evolved to be is beneficial for our country, leading us to reflection-- a US religion.
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