Giving Thanks
I'll keep my comments short and to the point, because you'd probably NOT want to hear about the many red cardinals that visited my feeder on Thanksgiving Day, about the (How bout them . . . !) Dallas Cowboys making mincemeat of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, or about the excellent quality of my roasted turkey, which I soaked in a brine solution for ten hours to make it extra juicy. The Thanksgiving Holiday has always been my favorite, because it's Christmas without the hassles--the endless carols, the mad shopping rush, and whatever it is that has transformed the religious feast into a commercial beast. I celebrated my Thanksgiving with lots of food and family, nothing unique here, I'm sure, but certainly keeping in the spirit of the holiday. What I'd really like to know is how you spent your Thanksgiving vacation, especially if it turned out to be a pretty special one. For those of you who don't care to share such personal stories, or if your vacation wasn't so good, feel "free" to write about "anything" that especially excited or interested you over the six-day break. Did you read a good book, watch a good movie, or draw or Thanksgiving turkey with a younger sibling or relative (see above photo)? Were you one of the crazies who stood in line for days to buy the new Nintendo? Let me hear it. "Thanks" for sharing.
posted by JTF @ 10:07 PM
48 comments
48 Comments:
Oh Fio! hello Sir I haven't visited schoolsville for a while and thought I'd pay it a visit! I'm sure you had fun watching your birds. Any good pics to send to the NBC 10 family? Ahh...My thanksgiving was pretty good thanks. Finals are nearing closer and closer along with that final research paper due date...(ahhh) Miss your class and I'm sure I'll see ya soon!
S-Diddy,
Well, since you asked . . . I put up both feeders last Wednesday and had visitors to both before evening. I use black oil sunflower in the squirrel-proof feeder which attracts the biggest variety of birds, like cardinals, chickadees,finches,and titmice. I've had downy woodpeckers at the suet feeder, but no red-bellied woodpeckers (a real treat) yet. Your comment has reminded me to stop by nbc10.com to check out Hurricane's long-range winter forecast. Hope the semester ends well.
Aaah Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday by far. This year I celebrated by doing what I do every year, sit around a table with my closest relatives and eat until the button pops off of my pants. After school on tuesday, my family and I packed up the car and headed up north on a seven-hour drive to Rochester, New York. We stayed at my grandparents' house, but many other aunts, uncles, and cousins live in the same area, so we spent very much time with them as well. It's always cool to see my 5-year-old cousin Daniel. He reminds me so much of myself when I was his age, hyper, loud, and never to be seen with his special blanket. Anyways, so on thursday, we watched the first football game, and then ate around 4 o'clock during the second one. I ate so much turkey and stuffing and sweet potatoe casserole, but of course you'are never too full for pumpkin pie. After I ate, I played my guitar for a while while numerous cousins requested songs.
Eventually the fun died down and we came home. It was a great trip; gotta love thanksgiving.
p.s. I think i should get some kind of bonus for being the first one to comment other than yourself. Haha just a thought, but i won't be offended if you consider it. This is Joe Tomanovich by the way. Peace
2 words.
Food & Family.
Thanksgiving is a strange holiday if you ask me. Now not to say i'm not thankful for all the things I have, because I am, very much so. But I don't see a huge point in making an enormous feast and eating more than any one person should in a day ties in to the whole thing. Again, I do love the food and hanging with my family, it's just wierd is all I can say.
But my feelings on Thanksgiving aside, it was an overall good on this year. Tuesday we had a half day and I spent it just like any other teenager would "just chillin". Wednesday I helped around the house, getting things ready for the traditional family meal my mom cooks at the house. The bird already defrosting, we made chocolate pie, banana pudding, and of course pumpkin pie. Later that night, I went to the mall with an old friend for some catching up and spent the night at her house. When I returned home Thursday, the house smelled immaculate. Turkey, stuffing, crab cakes, sweet potatoes; it couldn't get much better! As 4:30 aproached, my only grandfather knocked on the door, shortly followed by my two cousins and aunt & uncle. My cousins and I sat in the den for what seemed like an eternity waiting to eat. Finally, when the food was served it was worth the wait! It was a good night.
The next day, or morning i should say(5AM), my grandfather and my family packed up and went to his second house in the mountains of North Carolina. Perched on the side of a small mountain in northwestern Carolina, the view is unbelievable. Though the drive is pretty trecherous, eight hours, it's well worth it. We arrived late friday and just hung around the house, typing english papers(my sister and I on our laptops), and watching movies. Saturday we visited with lots of family in the area and drove around sightseeing. It amazed me how everyone down there used the expression "just up the road" when in reality, to me it seemed ages away! Everything is so rural that the closest towns and "civilizations" are at least a 45 minute drive. But anyway, Sunday, my dad, sister, and myself went hiking in the Grayson Highland State Park on the Appalachain Trail with wild ponies. It was pretty cool, a good workout and amazing sights. Later we had a bonfire & then hit the pillows pretty early.
Unfortunately, we started on the long drive home early monday morning. It was a great vacation and even though I didn't get to see my friends much it was good family bonding and alot of fun.
LS Red
Fiorelli,
I'm glad that your holiday was a good one! My Thanksgiving holiday was a blast to the moon and back. I enjoy very much visiting relatives and eating until the loop of my belt needs to be loosened. It all started on Thursday. My family and I packed up our car and headed to Upstate New York. This is where my Aunt Theresa opens up her home to everyone that can come. From the minute we got into the door until Saturday we were eating. It is always a good laugh to sit around a table and talk to people you only see once a year. It's so nice to see kids running around in the holiday spirit and asking you to play with them. It reminds me of when I was younger. Sitting around a table of friends and family is both a comfort and a joy. It saddends me when my trip comes to an end so quickly. On Saturday we visited my Dad's old grammar school friend and we also did a little shopping. We headed back home Saturday night where our fun had ended in New York. This gave me time to write an English paper hhah and see friends. Thanksgiving is a great holiday and i sure gave thanks for all that I had. I hope our tradition of going to New York stays with us next year...
AJ green
Heyy Fio!! My Thanksgiving was really great! I love seeing my family and it was a nice preview of how fun Christmas and New Year's will be. I actually had two Thanksgivings. One with my dad's family on Thursday, and one with my mom's on Saturday. The one on Thursday was small. It was only my family, my Grandma and Pop-Pop, and my aunt. We went to my Grandma's house, which is kinda boring, but was fun because I got to be with my older sister who is at college. You remember her; it's Katrina. Well shes doing good just to let you know. Well after I ate until I could not fit another piece of food in me, we went home. It was late, like two in the morning. I slept on the car ride home, but me and Katrina wanted to shop Black Friday, so I never went to bed that night. We went to the mall, but it was a mess. I didn't end up buying anything, but i had never gone and it was fun to see what it was like.
So that night we left for my aunt's house in Virginia. It's a six hour trip. It was so annoying being in the car for so long, and when we got there I went right to bed. I woke up the next morning to the wonderful smell of food. it was amazing. We watched football, and played board games. my mom's family is so big, and so fun that you can never be bored with them. Once again I ate until I couldn't breathe, but who can help themselves on Thanksgiving. The plan was to leave Sunday morning, but that night my mom decided it would be better to leave then. I was kinda mad, but I knew I would get to see everyone again soon so it was alright. I can't wait until Christmas!! My Thanksgivings were so much fun, and hope eveyone else had fun too!
Well, Thanksgiving has always been a bit of a strange time for me. It not always the best time of year, because one of my late grandfathers passed away around that time. The other late greandfather loved Thanksgiving mroe than any other holiday, so we always rememeber them on that day. This year's Thanksgiving we spent at home and one of my older sister come down from New York to spend it with us. Since we moved in only August of 2005 we had spent most of our thanksgivings with a lot of family. We flew down to Florida for Thanksgiving 2005, so this was our first year without them. This year was a lot of fun though. As I said before, my sister came down from New York to spend time with us. On thanksgiving we had a nice dinner, but not a huge one, because there was only 4 people. We played Scene It, the movie version a few times and just had fun on the day. I love having my sister around because she means a lot to me, more than anyone else. My thanksgiving turned out to be pretty good, even if it was small.
When Thanksgiving break finally came around I couldn’t have been more excited just to be home and away from school. I was excited that I could finally sleep past 6 and just relax at home. This year I expected Thanksgiving to be boring and a waste of time, mostly because my family happened to get into quite a large argument a week before the big holiday and spending the holiday with my grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles was suddenly out of the question. Way to ruin my holiday. But my parents didn’t let that keep the spirit of Thanksgiving down, they both worked very hard to put together a wonderful dinner that my younger sister and I could enjoy. Quite honestly I didn’t think dinner this year would be as good as it always is, I sort of thought the enjoyment of the day would be dull and boring. But spending the day with just my sister and my parents turned out to be better than I expected. The dinner that my parents prepared was amazing and I enjoyed every bite, especially the apple and pumpkin pie. I enjoyed the day by just relaxing and spending time with my sister and parents. There was no stress of having relatives over or anything. I actually kind of enjoyed even thought I thought I wouldn’t. But the real fun came the night after Thanksgiving. Because the next day was of course, Black Friday my sister and I definitely wanted to go shopping. So we begged our parents to take us to the mall at 3 a.m. We thought it would be a fun experience. When my mom said no, my dad felt bad and volunteered to take us. We set the alarm for 1:30 a.m. so that we would be awake and ready to leave by 2:30. My sister and I were so excited, until we actually got to the mall. There were so many people there and I was very tired. I ran into my boyfriend’s mom and sister, which was sort of weird because it was 3 in the morning. But nevertheless it was fun and exciting. So we did a little shopping and got a few things, but after a couple of hours I was even more tired than before and I was ready to go home and sleep. The rest of my vacation was relaxing as well. Of course I slept a lot and watched Christmas movies in order to get into the holiday spirit, I also helped my mom put the Christmas tree up and decorate it. Overall, Thanksgiving break wasn't too bad I actually enjoyed it. However, the best part was being off from school.
This thanksgiving was not a very good one. I was unable to see my relatives and friends because I got sick the night before. But Thanksgiving is my third favorite holiday. It is a time where my relatives and I, who dont see each other very much, can sit down, relax, and catch up on school, sports, etc. Even though I enjoy Thanksgiving, I dont understand the meaning of the holiday. As a student i enjoy having time off of school for the holiday but i just dont understand thanksgiving. It is supposed to be the holiday where we give thanks for what we have. But the thing is that we give thanks onthe other family gatherings. We also gives thanks when we say grace before meals (if you do that). I just dont get it. So this years Thanksgiving break didnt go as i planned but hopefully Christmas will be better!!
I'm glad to hear that you had a good Thanksgiving. Mine was very bitter-sweet. Since my family was hosting Thanksgiving this year, I had to clean all day Wednesday. It wasn't "complete" torture, but I'll just say I'd have preferred Chinese water torture. Finally the big day was here. I awoke to the smell of turkey througout the house. The family showed up, about 10-12 in all, and we had a lovely dinner. There was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean caserolle, all the Thanksgiving regulars. Then we all sat down and watched the Dallas Cowboys game. I hate the Cowboys with a passion, but it's fun when the whole family is there. But the funnest thing about this break was football practice on Thanksgiving. That was one of our team's goals from the beginning of the season and we accomplished it. But, there was also a sad point to this break. Friday night, under the lights at Baynard Stadium, our St. Mark Spartans fell to the soon to be crowned state champs Salesianum. It was a hard fought battle, but in the end, they prevailed. I'm happy to be back in school now, but only for a a week or so.
I love Thanksgiving. I love the fact that all your family can just get together, relax and have huge dinner. This year all my family went to my aunts house. My grandmother from Maine came down, so it was really good to see her because it has been a while. There was about 15 of us and most of them were my little cousins. Five little boys running around gets pretty hectic and loud, to say the least. But thats my family. We are the loudest people I know. My mom, her two sisters and my grammy..wow! We all try to talk over one another, which gets us in little arguements, but it's always fun. It's just non-stop talking and gossiping. I love getting together with my family though. It brings us all a lot closer because we don't really see each other much. Everyone is so busy these days with work, school and things like that. I also had basketball practice over break. Which I always look forward to after a huge Thanksgiving dinner. So this years Thanksgiving turned out to be a success!
Thanksgiving so many memories of my family sitting around the table all together. This year was a little different than the last. My Mom's twin younger brothers came over with their families and that was all. The morning consisted of my Dad, my two younger sisters ,Amanda and Taylor, and myself going to go see a movie. This year we went and saw Santa Claus 3 The Escape Claus. The movie was good not high up on a great movie. Then we went home and my Mom was making the turkey, boy did the house smell good when we walked through the door. Later that night my Mom's brothers and families came over as well as my Grandfather. We sat and ate and talked like we haven't seen each other in years. After dinner we celebrated my cousin Mark's birthday so we had cake and ice cream. All in all Thanksgiving this year was great.
On thanksgiving we alternate between my mom's side of the family in New Jersey and my dad's side of the family here in Delaware. We were in New Jersey last year so this year we stayed here in Delaware. I was very excited when I got home on the last day before break. My dad and I watched most of season three of Scrubs (my favorite show). My mom went over to my aunts house with all the other people that were helping to prepare the night before so she wouldn't have to go out there in the morning. On thanksgiving morning she made many pumpkin pies and we all prepared to go over for dinner. We got there and we wathched the Dallas game. I hate the cowboys. Later we ate dinner with turkey, mash potatoes, corn, sweer potatoes, green beans and all the other usual stuff. We then took a break and played some games and did some other things that I don't really remember since it is now January. After awhile we all sat down again for dessert. We had pumpkin pie, apple pie, ice cream, ice cream cake, and some other good desserts. The rest of the break I didn't do much watched a little more Scrubs played games and guitar. Overall this thanksgiving was definately better than last year because I had just had surgery on my mouth last year the day before.
While Thanksgiving is a slightly casual holiday for my family, it certainly is an important one. It is usually fairly the same each year, but this year, there was someone absent. My grandmother, who died in June, was not here this year. I really felt the loss around this time, unable to avoid the tears that confirmed that she was really gone. Yet it was still a nice holdiay, knowing that she was watching, sharing and probably making fun of us on Thanksgiving.
Later that week, I went with my parents and brother to Rehoboth Beach to do some shopping before traveling farther south to see the Winterfest of Lights in Ocean City. While in the Outlets, I insisted that I be allowed to go in. I was greatly suprised when I found the long anticipated sequel of Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan(And a pile of books just fell on me as I attempt to find said book). Although it carried the hefty price of thirteen dollars, my parents bought my The Burning Bridge and I immediately set off to read it. I would have finished it in a few days had I not accidently shoved it underneath the couch when I got home and not looked underneath it for a month.
Once our shopping was finished, we hopped back in the car and went to see the Winterfest of Lights which was fun as it always is despite the cold. Afterward, we visited our usual Italian restaraunt, Lombardi's. It's a great place, so if you're ever in Ocean City, Maryland, go ahead and try them out. The rest of my vacation was pretty uneventful, rot my brain in front of the computer, walk my dogs... But nothing beats leftover Thanksgiving turkey.
Thanksgiving is a great time of year. Mine is filled with family and food. My parents and me switch off every other year between my grandparent’s house and my aunt and uncle's house. This year was our year at my aunt and uncle's with the whole family. We went to their house and ate dinner until we all were stuffed (we knew how the turkey felt). Along with eating there was also the watching of football as always. This year, however, was a little different then most. You see my cousin's birthday is in November and the only day they could have his party on was Thanksgiving Day! A little weird, I know, but there is a whole long story behind that. Anyway, since that was the day of his party, after we were finished eating at my aunt and uncle's we hung around for a little while, but then had to leave to go to his party. Usually we don't see any of my mom's side of the family on Thanksgiving so this year was especially filled with family (and double the food). It was a great Thanksgiving and it was pretty cool to get to see my mom's side of the family. Even though the day felt a little rushed, if it came down to it, I wouldn't mind doing it again.
My Thanksgiving was spent in New York with my mom's side of the family. Usually we spend it with my dad's but we made an exception because so many of my mom's family members would be attending and most of them live outside the country. On our way up there we stopped in New Jersy t pick up my cousins and aunt and kept going. When we arrived all the food was prepared, all the plates set out, and the best smell in the world was permeating through the air. It seemed as if they were just waiting for us to come because no sooner we got in it was time to eat. We had the traditional turkey,stuffing, sweet potato pie,and apple pie, cheescake, mashed potatoes, black eyed peas, macaroni, differnt types of chicken, ham, rice, soup and many other things still in the oven. It was delicious even though most of us couldn't stand up straight afterwards due to severe overeating. Regardless, we had great conversations, watched movies and played video games together, and just overall had one of the most enjoyable and memorable Thanksgivings I've had in a very long time. The next morning we left to head home. We dropped everyone off and when we got back we went to sleep. I can say that I had a really good Thanksgiving last year.
i love thanksgiving. its the only holiday that is basically about eating. how often do you get to eat that much and that well on just a random day basically. i love eating by the way so its just great. family, food, and football-thats a pretty good combination if you ask me. over my break i would have like to catch up on some sleep but football kept me from that. that wasnt a problem tho because one of our goals was to be practicing on thanksgiving, which we did. also over my break i had hoped to defeat sallies in our second shot at them, but although it was the end of our season the break gave me time to reflect and i realized it wasnt all that bad. and this was probably the thanksgiing where i was more thankful for everything than i had every been.
My thanksgiving was filled with food and family. Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to see family that you haven’t seen in a while and catch up with one another. Also you can give thanks for all that you have.
When I got home from school on Tuesday I was so relieved to have a break from school. Nothing very eventful occurred in my break until Thursday morning. That morning i left my house for a three hour drive up to my aunt and uncle’s house for dinner. Everyone on my mom's side was there, including my aunts, uncles, cousin and her fiancé. We had a very enjoyable dinner that was very filling. After we had dinner we had desert, which is my favorite part. As usual, we watched a Christmas movie to get into the Christmas spirit. This year we watched Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation which is a very funny movie. This year my two aunts decided to play a trick on me and my siblings. They brought an advertisement from a store called Ollie’s. They told us that this year for Christmas they would only buy us presents from this one advertisement. I and my siblings were very bewildered when we heard this. We were surprised by the choices since they were not something that we would ordinarily choose. Although we did not really like the choices we went along with it and chose some presents. About twenty five minutes later they told us it was a joke. We were so surprised! We continued to have an enjoyable time until finally we had to leave because my brother and sister both had basketball tournaments the next day.
The rest of my break was very relaxed. I was usually either at my house or at my brother and sisters basketball games. On Saturday morning I went to the Rehoboth Outlets with my mom to go Christmas shopping. We had a great time buying presents for people. All and all I had a great vacation!
My Thanksgiving holiday was so much different this year than it usually is. Every year, dinner is usually held at my house and my sister, brother, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law join my parents and I in the feasting. But this year my whole family wasn't together. My sister decided to spend her holiday in Connecticut with her husband's family. My parents actually wanted to GO OUT FOR DINNER on Thanksgiving. When they told me that, i flipped out. Thanksgiving is all about the turkey, stuffing, corn, and pumpkin pie (and of course giving thanks). I did not want to spend it out at a restaurant. What's the fun in that? So my sister-in-law offered to have Thanksgiving dinner at her house this year along with her parents. I still wasn't really happy about not keeping the tradition of dinner at our house, but anything was better than a restaurant. Anyway, nothing exciting at all happened at dinner. The food was good. And the company of my family was even greater even though I did miss my sister.
That night I went to my friend's house with another friend. The next morning we were going to the mall at 3 AM for Black Friday shopping. We decided to just not sleep all night. We sat up, drank lots of coffee, and watched The Little Mermaid. Before we knew it, it was time to head to the mall. When we got there, it was packed. After about 2 hours, we were tired of the crowd and decided to try somewhere else. Everywhere we went was just filled with people. By 10 AM everybody was just miserable, so we decided to call it a day and head home. I spent the rest of the day sleeping. Overall, it was an okay Thanksgiving. I got to spend it with the people i love.
My Thanksgiving break was bland but also had some flavor to it at the same time, like grits with some butter and salt thrown on. I hung out and watched alot of T.V. I spent time hangin out with my friends and enjoying those typical "never trade in anything else for it in the world" moments. It's always fun to be with your friends and do stupid stuff. I spent time with family members as everyone should on holidays like these. I ate a ton of food my favorites being the pineapple casserole, cranberry fruit salad, and the mashed potatoes and gravy. I'm not a big turkey man myself and I'm not a fan of passing out early because of it. Thanksgiving is always fun and even more fun when you have off school and I enjoyed it very much.
This is CNN...
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It’s so nice when your whole family can get together, share a meal, and give thanks for all that they have. My family’s thanksgivings are always a little different. Sometimes we go up to Manhattan where my Uncle lives. Other times we celebrate at my family’s mountain house up in Pennsylvania. We always have so many people there who aren’t even in our family, so that makes it even more fun. This year, we had it at my uncles house in Kennet Square, PA. He actually lives in New York, but he has that house so he can garden. So anyway, we all went up there around 3:00 so we could help cook and everything. My sisters and I just sat around while everybody was preparing the dinner. We’re the only kids in the family so they never really make us do anything. It’s lovely. Once everything was ready, we all sat down at the extremely large table. My grandfather always says prayer, and then we eat. All throughout dinner, people just come and go. At one point there was probably about 30 people there. My uncle positioned my little sister and I on this day bed chair thing at the table with tons of pillows. After I eat I always go somewhere and fall asleep. This year, I fell asleep right at the table. It was so nice. We left around 7 and went to my mom’s sister’s house for desert. I only have 2 cousins so they’re basically like my sisters and I love spending time with them. At my aunts house I just caught up with them and all. We left at probably 10, so we could be well rested for hardcore shopping the next day. We were at the mall around 6 and it was nice. I heard that it was even more crowded at 3 am so I’m glad we didn’t try to pull that off. Later that day I went paintballing. All in all, it was a very lovely Thanksgiving. Hope everybody else had a good one also.
(A quick note: It is my belief that the name "Thanksgiving" is all too commonly misused. Thanksgiving is the action that should be taking place on this day; it is not the day itself. What if one is not actually "giving thanks"? Should that particular day still be referred to as Thanksgiving? I think not. Therefore, I propose that the date that was formally called Thanksgiving Day hereby be called Pinecone Pirate Day, in honor of the brave pinecones and pirates who gave their lives for the Pilgrims during that first winter at Plymouth. Oh, and for those of you who think "Turkey Day" is acceptable: go back to Micronesia.)
And so, without further ado:
My Pinecone Pirate Day was okay I suppose. It was the first time I had ever celebrated this holiday anywhere outside of my mother's parents' home. For you see, my grandfather passed away last spring, and his wife, my grandmother, has quite severe Alzheimer's. My uncle had to move in to take care of her, and so it was decided that, with her disease farther progressed than it ever has been, all the calamities of the holiday would be too much for my grandmother's mind to handle. It was therefore also decided that my female parental unit and I would celebrate Pinecone Pirate Day elsewhere. My mother wanted to take a mini-vacation down to a small Chesepeake Bay town called St. Michael's, and seeing as I had few objections, that's where we went. I spent a good portion of Pinecone Pirate Day reading and listening to my iPod in the back of the car as my mother got lost about a million times traveling from our stay in St. Michael's to Annapolis, where we planned to eat dinner. Upon arriving in the Marylandian capital, a restaurant was selected, practically at random. There turned out to be an all-you-can-eat buffet going on at this particular establishment, which I found pretty groovy. I accidently selected roast beef as my meal (you have to admit, there really isn't much of a visibly-perseptable difference in the many varieties of meat and poultry), which didn't particularly upset me, considering I've never really understood the significance of the whole turkey tradition anyway. I stayed with the classics for the rest of my meal, however. Pinecone Pirate Day just isn't Pinecone Pirate Day without mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, string beans, and pie. After sitting down, grace was said, and food was eaten. Sitting there devouring my roast beef, it occured to me that my observance of this holiday wasn't turning out to be particularly festive. I then remembered that there are millions and millions of people who would have nothing to eat that night. Here I was, though, with all-I-could-eat. "Gee, am I lucky," I thought. "Thanks be to God."
Thanksgiving is definitely one of my favorite times of year. All of the food, relatives, and visits with old friends. The food is amazing, don’t even let me get into that, but the main reason I am writing this is to say what my favorite part of my most recent thanksgiving was. I didn’t wait in any lines for a stupid video game or draw a picture. I went to watch the University of Maryland Terrapins play football against the Wake Forest Deacon Demons. I went with my dad, uncle, and cousin. It was a fun game, we got there early and decided to get some subs and mingle with all the fellow terp fans. When the game started, everyone was going wild and when a good play was made everyone high fived each other all around. It was a great “male-bonding” experience for the males of my family. Even though maryland eventually lost and did not receive a BCS bowl bid, which they were shooting for. I was still able to leave knowing I had a fun time and I also came away with a sweet maryland underarmour jersey that looks awesome. I must say that they have the best jerseys out of most college football teams. But this is not the only fun thing I did. The other fun thing I did was eat and celebrate thanksgiving dinner. It was an amazing meal and it was fun to watch and listen to my uncle and grandfather interrogate my sisters boyfriend when he stopped by for an appearance. They are notorious for doing that but they took it easy on him. Yep, thanksgiving is definitely one of my favorite holidays.
Over Thanksgiving break I spent most of my time in Virginia visiting with relatives that I hadn't seen for years. As soon as my mom, my sister and I arrived at our cousins house we were very excited. We assumed that it would just be my family, my cousins, and a few of their friends stopping over for the holiday dinner, but to our suprise, many more people showed up unexpectedly. We had a full house and at first it seemed as if there wouldn't be enough food for eveyone.But thank God I was wrong because everyone looked famished! Once we had some delicious food in our stomachs,I began to converse with some relatives untill it got pretty late. By that time my cousins had already found out that I had brought High School Musical with me from home and couldn't wait to watch it(Even though the pop up edition of the movie was playing on Disney channel!) so after the movie my cousin Renata, who's my age, persuaded me to stay up a little later and watch late night t.v. That's a big deal for me because my normal holiday bed time is 11( and by the time of her proposal it was already 2am). The next day was Black Friday of course, and we really wanted to leave early in the morning to hit all the sales before the mad rush of shoppers came rushing in.
But to our dismay, we left at 2 in the afternoon and didn't arrive at the mall untill 3. And to make things worse, Renata and I left our money at the house! Thankfully my sister and her sister gave us some money to buy a few things. Even though the holiday didn't turn out exactly how we wanted it to, it was even better than we could have imagined it to be.
During the course of the year, we take alot of things for granted whether it's our friends, our family or even the food we eat. Thanksgiving is a time for all of us to remember and be greatfull for everything we have and to know that we are trully blessed.
Well, my Thanksgiving was pretyy normal, for me at least. Then again, any time spent with my cousin Shelbey is anything but normal! Anyway, Thanksgiving is usually spent with my mom's family, so the day started off with my grandparents comming over around noon. My grandma brought the turkey(which we jokingly say she gets from the nuclear plant because they're always huge) and ended up basting the bottom of the oven as well. Soon after, my 14 year old cousin Shelbey, my Aunt Barbara, and her boyfriend Ralph came over. After about two hours, dinner was ready. We all sat down and some odd conversations ensued. After dinner, the night seemed to fly by and it was time for my grandparents to leave. The rest of the gang stayed and we had some more conversations. After thge rest of the group lefyt, it wasn't long before my brother got a call from Shelbey. We talked untill she had to go to bed, and soon after, went to bed ourselves. I'd rather not go into detail of the wierd and wackey events, but it was quite an eventful night. I always like Thanksgiving because it gives us all an opportunity to get together like this.
Carol
Thanksgiving, what a great time of the year. My Thanksgivings are always really fun. Where ever Thanksgiving dinner ends up, usually my house or one of my aunt's houses, almost every one in my family will be there. I don't like some of the food we have, which is kinda stange, because every one i talk to likes everything. Mostly the turkey, mashed potatoes, maybe some green beans, and some rolls could hold me over for a while. The night usually startes out with every one coming over way before the food is even near being ready, and doing what ever untill it is ready, the we eat for about what seems like forever. when every one is finnally done, we usually are all still sitting at the table talking about the current topic of the minute. My family is really funny when we are all together, we can really talk about anything and have every one laughing. Well after all that is over we have dessert, and every one is starting go home home.
Most people think of Thanksgiving and one word comes to mind - food. I mostly think of it as another much-needed break from school. I enjoy entertaining family from Rochester, NY. Football is also a fun past time during this holiday season. Me and my brothers and uncles always enjoy going to the park and playing a good couple games before we eat dinner on Thanksgiving day. The food also excites me though. It's nice to have a huge sit-down dinner every once in a while. The added attention that goes into making the meal also counts for something in my book. I had fun getting full of turkey and watching my favorite cowboys take out the buccaneers by a large margin.
That has to be the best part; getting full and falling asleep in front of the tv on Thanksgiving. No fancy trips for me. Just give me a big blanket and a couch after a lot of turkey and I'm a happy camper.
I guess you can say that like any holiday this time of year, the most important part is family. I have a pretty small family but I enjoy them all the same. It's just nice to know that someone cares about you when millions of others have no one to care for them. It's kind of a depressing thing to think about I guess, so be thankful for what you have.
All in all, I had a really good Thanksgiving. It wasn't much different from any others but that's just fine with me. I think i found some things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Maybe I'm now a little more fulfilled.
Ahh, Thanksgiving, what a holiday. In my opinion one of the best holidays by far. Its a time when you can get together with distant relatives that you haven't seen in ages. Its also a time when I get to preform one of the 7 Deadly Sins and no one will care. Oh, and the sin I'm talking about is Glutony, because on Thanksgiving I usualy gain about 4-5 lbs. from eating dinnerand dessert. But, Thanksgiving i also a time, especially for my family, to watch the football game thats on. No matter what team is playing we watch it just to watch it. But this years Thanksgiving did not really give me all that much to really behappy about. I mean the Pittburgh Steelers my the Cleveland Browns on Thankgiving 24 to 20, so Im happy about that. But I just ended up going over my Aunts house for dinner, and I see my Aunt all the time so it really wasn't all that special; but the food was delicious so I can't complain there although I just recently worked off the 6 and a half pound I gained just off of dinner. So all-in-all I had a really good time even if I saw the same old people again their still my family.
My Thanksgiving was pretty different. My Aunt Yo had come to DE to visit us and I don't see her much. We played UNO as always and she stayed in my room while i stayed upstairs. I love haing her around because she's always interested in what I have to say and everything that I do.
Well anyways, on Thursday, Thanksgiving day, my mom cooked for one of the first times all year, but not everything. So the dinner was pretty special. On Thanksgiving, it's one of the few times of the year we have everyone together, plus my aunt, because of my one sister in college and the other living on her own. This year my college sister brought her boyfriend and her best friend to eat too. Her best friend is awesome, she is here most of the time.
As usual, we all gave thanks, but my aunt gave the best, seeing as she is a very strong catholic and knows exactly what she's thankfl for all of the time. By the end, since we had so many people, we had finally gotten to my little brother and he didn't know what to be thankful for because we had covered the biggest things. haha. Well, anyways, the family put a lot of attention to my sister's boyfriend and her best friend most of the "linner", but that is fine because me and my little brothers had our own little conversations going on.
I'd have to say, overall, my Thanksgiving was pretty normal and pretty okay. I loved the food and as long I was with the poeple that I care about the most, that's all that really matters. :)
Thanksgivings are similar every year but spectacular and unique every year in their very own way. This year was just as enjoyable as the rest of them; I can assure you of that. The thing is that I feel more and more a part of this celebration as I mature and become a little older. With my relatives getting older the festivities are now held at my house. I must say that my mother did a wonderful job on the grub; everyone ate their fill and then some. This Thanksgiving brought my grandmother and my aunt and uncle to our neck of the woods. It's a wonderful time to recognize how thankful you are for all of life’s precious gifts. To experience excellent food and football games with good company embodies the things that I would be "thankful," for. I think some individuals should take a nice long look at the word "thankful" and then think about it. It's not about how cool you are or anything like that. It's about being respectful, and maybe even wearing that ugly sweater your grandmother bought for you last Christmas. I love my family, and I'm sure everyone can find something to be thankful for, even if it's just for a day in the year.
MCD GREEn
On Thanksgiving I do what every normal person does on Thanksgiving: get up, go to Grand mom’s house, and have a big dinner. However, my Thanksgiving Day is always a little different. I usually wake up by eight o’clock, and drag my pillow to our family room. There I will find a comfy spot on the couch squished between family members where we all watch the Boscov’s and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parades. Personally, I prefer the Macy’s Day Parade, because I enjoy watching the performers. However, most of my family members would rather watch the Boscov’s Day Parade, because they enjoy watching the marching bands. While watching such parades, we usually will have a cup of warm cocoa, and a light breakfast. After lounging around all morning, we will all run to try to get a shower at the same time. If you’re very lucky, you’ll get a shower first. However, if you’re not too lucky, you’ll end up having to take the last shower- the coldest one, being as there are 6 people in my family. After everyone has taken their showers, my mom and my younger sister, Maggie, will go through a routine of arguing about what she is wearing. My mom doesn’t want her to wear ripped jeans and an AC/DC shirt to Grand mom’s house for Thanksgiving, and Maggie will complain that she has no clothes (when she’s got a full closet of them ). Next, my older sister and I will argue about 2 distinct things: curling irons/ hair straighteners and if we are wearing something that looks anything like what the other person is wearing. So after having small “cat fights” we all pile into the car where we spend an hour driving to Grand mom’s house together.
I should explain a few things about my grandparents. These would be my dad’s parents. They live in Bensalem, PA (about an hour drive from here). We usually see Grand mom and Grand pop on Thanksgiving and Nan and Poppop (mom’s parents) on the day after or before Thanksgiving. My grandparents are very traditional. You can always find my grandmother in the kitchen, and you can find my grand pop watching TV, or reading downstairs (they live in an old shag-carpeted split-level house).
After about an hour or so of fighting about radio stations and Dad complaining about all of the traffic on I-95, we will pull into my grandparent’s driveway (which is always full of cars because my grandfather is a kleptomaniac). Then we run out of the car, screaming “freedom!” till we reach the front door of the house. There we are met with the most delicious smells of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. You can be sure to find my grandfather in his favorite chair, reading or watching whatever football game is on TV, and to find my grandmother busy at work in the kitchen. At this point we all say hello to my grandparents, my two aunts who live there also, and my uncle who came up from Washington D.C. for the holiday. Next my younger brother, Victor, will go downstairs and talk to my grandfather with my dad about their next hunting trip. My sisters, mom and I will be upstairs in the kitchen asking my grandmother if there is anything she wants help with and the answer to that question is always the same “no”. We find things to do anyway, like setting the table or filling glasses with water/wine.
Around 4 o’clock my grandmother will call my grandfather upstairs to “cut the turkey”, a very big deal. After he finally comes upstairs and cuts the turkey, (which is always huge) we will sit down for dinner. There’s always a ton of food: mashed potatoes, 3 kinds of green vegetables, 2 different kinds of rolls, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, 4 different kinds of stuffing, and of course the gravy and turkey. People fill their plates to the brim and there are always a ton of leftovers. Dinner is usually about two hours long. Here, conversation is about anything. Unfortunately, having three doctors at the table and a retired nurse leads most conversations to eventually something medical and usually gross.
After dinner is over the women will cleanup by hand washing all of the fine china, while the men will go back downstairs and pick up their conversation from before. This usually takes about an hour or two- depending on how fast everyone is moving. Then, the women will finally get a break and will sit down in the living room where they will start talking about anything from food stores like Costco to my Aunt’s wedding. At this point I usually take a cat nap; resting up before dessert. Around eight o’clock we will commute back to the dining room table to again eat. This time there will also be many options: the all popular and quite traditional pumpkin pie, peanut butter pie, cookies, pecan pie, butter cake, sticky buns, candies, and grand mom’s famous cheese cake ( definitely my favorite). We will sit and eat dessert for about another hour or so.
Then my siblings and I will congregate around the television, attempting to find a Christmas movie while cutting out pictures of what we would like for Christmas out of old magazines and newspapers. My grandfather and dad will sit at the dining room table- undoubtedly eating more dessert and discussing their hunting trip which will commence in a day or two. My grandmother and mom will be discussing “motherly issues” and such and my aunts and uncle will be downstairs with us playing games and chilling out.
Around 11:30 /12 o’clock my dad will figure out that it’s late and that he still needs to drive us home. He’ll rush us all to get our belongings and carry us (used to carry) us out to the car so that we wouldn’t have to put our shoes on. Then as soon as the car reaches I-95 all of the children are sound asleep.
My Thanksgiving is always crazy, but fun. Having all of those family members around me makes me really thankful that I have so many loving and caring people in my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world
My thanksgiving was so much fun, but a hectic one. The reason my thanksgiving was so crazy was because my parents are divorced so i have to go to both sides of my parents families. Well first I went to my mom side of the family where I had lunch with my family. After I was done my dad came and picked me up to take me to my grandmas house for dinner with my dad's family. My grandma made her delicious turkey and my favorties sweet potatoes with marshomellows and pretzel jello. After dinner we all sat together and watched the football. For the week my mom and I went to our beach house and spent some time together. Then did our anual shopping spree on black friday down at the outlets. To believe it or not the place was croward with people everywhere looking for cheap deals. After shopping we spent the rest of the weekend at our beach house for a relaxing weekend.
Thanksgiving has to be one of my favorite holidays of the year. It doesn't have the general cheer and merriness of Christmas but it's the only time I get to see some of my family. Having a spread out family means that I don't get to see them too often with my grampa in Kentucky, my aunt and uncle in Florida, and my sister in California. Thanksgiving to me means seeing some of my favorite relatives and eating delicious food. This Thanksgiving was especially meaningful to me because we had a new addition, my new nephew Van Holden Lindelof, and I am very thankful for that. Thanksgiving is always crazy in my household because everyone is together in the kitchen and the living room having fun. we have the traditional Parcheesee game in the living room with my sister who is actually more competetive than my dad and I (if that's possible) and we always have to argue about the rules. My dad is in the kitchen playing Backgamon with my aunt and my grampa is just watching everyone yell and scream about pointless little games. Then we all pile down in the basement for a ping-pong tournament. My family is big on competetition so if you're going to play with us you need to be tough, no smiles during a ping-pong match. Finally on Thanksgiving Day we squeeze into the kitchen to cook the food and everyone has a job. This is probably the most hectic part of the holiday ecause everybody's running around the kitchen doing different tasks. Not to mention the fact that every single person on the Fugeman side of my family has a very short fuse, there is a slight bit of tension when everything is coming out of the oven. The meal itself is also a big part of my reason for loving Thanksgiving, it's the one day we blatanly disobey Ben Franklin's rule of gluttony. In my family we always have sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravey, cranberry sauce, string bean casserole, and of course the roast turkey. After dinner we then have my dad's pumpkin pie and my aunt's apple pie which is absolutly delicious. Not only is Thanksgiving meaningful because of food but also because of memories. I can still remember five years ago when my aunt, uncle, and cousin came in from Colorado. My cousin is a year older than I am and we get along great, I love seeing him. We spent the entire day playing around in my backyard which had not been seeded yet, playing in the mud. It's memories like this and the countless memories to come that make Thanksgiving so special to me and it why I am so thankful to have such a great family.
Thanksgiving is by far one of my favorite holidays. Not only do you get the excuse to eat lots of food but also you get to see family members that aren’t often around anymore. On my mom’s side I’m one of the youngest so a lot of my cousins are in college or already have already finished; at Thanksgiving I get to spend time with them and catch up. This year we had dinner at my aunt’s house so we all got to cram around their tiny kitchen table, which always seemed much bigger when the cousins and I were littler. A tradition in our family is to go around the table and say what we have been thankful for this year. I remember my aunt was thankful that my cousin’s car had been found and wasn’t damaged. Earlier in the year my cousin’s car had been stolen but after a while it was found on the side of a road with only a few expensive parts missing. It may seem like a small thing, but it was really important to my aunt that my cousin had a car. He left for college last year and she wanted him to be able to visit home more often. This Thanksgiving was also a little sad because my other cousin recently moved to Colorado and was unable to come out for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. She did come out for Christmas so that was fun getting to hear all her stories about her dog and job. The food at Thanksgiving has to be one of the high points of the holiday season. I remember when I was a little girl my aunt would make the cranberry sauce from scratch. She had a cranberry press and I would get to put them in, then turn the handle, and watch it slowly come out in big red globs. Pressing those cranberries is one of my favorite Thanksgiving memories. Thanksgiving is a truly big holiday for my family and me; that’s the reason its one of my favorites.
The Thanksgiving holiday is a time of food, family and celebration. Its almost like the holiday that gets you prepared for Christmas if you ask me. Thanksgiving is a time for us all to be thankful for the family we have and to celebrate. It's a time where we can get a little break in our stressful lives in the month of November.
My Thanksgiving was a great one. I was able to enjoy so much food, unlike last year where I was sick and couldn't eat anything. The morning of thanksgiving I woke up and went to play some football with my brothers and their friends. It was awesome and rather muddy. But, it was just a blast messing around with the guys playing football. Then we went to my aunt's house for our annual Thanksgiving dinner. It was phenomenal. I love this day because I can eat and eat and there will still be more food. I ate so much turkey, mash potatoes, and apple crisp. I ate as much as I would over a period of two days. Then we all sat down as a family and watched the football games and Elf on the television. Finally we drew names for our gift exchange and we saw who we all got to buy presents for at Christmas time. And then it was a long car ride home then finally bed. It was a very exhausting day.
The whole idea of “thanksgiving” is a good idea. Thanksgiving is a good holiday, but its not my favorite. Thanksgiving has a wonderful concept. It is usually a time to get together with a bunch of family. You can reflect on all of the family stuff, or just have a good time. The whole idea of giving thanks is wonderful. You give thanks for the food you get, and then your sit and chow down on a whole lot of food. That’s the best part.
I am not really a holiday kind of person but I do not mind Thanksgiving. During this time I don’t exactly do a lot. It is mostly a stay home kind of day. My family does not have a big family get together. Its just a quite dinner with my mom, dad, and brother. Nothing special! For thanksgiving, my grandmother came to my house and cooked us dinner. It was fun except for the fact that I was sick. So I did not have such a good day, but my day was not terrible either. So pretty much I was watching TV on the sofa all day. Sorry, but there were no interesting pictures drawn, or any books read. I just sat around, nothing too special.
The day after Thanksgiving we started our Christmas shopping. Yes I know, my family must be crazy for going out on the infamous “black Friday.” It wasn’t so bad. I thought it was outrages how some of the stores open so early. The Christiana Mall opened at 3AM. My neighbors planned to go to the mall when it opened. I thought that was way too early and it wasn’t needed. There were still a lot of days left before Christmas came. I heard many stories from the mall. Some people were getting run over just to get into the doors. My neighbors went to the mall in their pajamas. I figure if you are going to the mall in your pajamas, you might as well be at your house in bed. If you are going out in public you should at least put on clothes. O well, people will do whatever they want anyway.
Black Friday is the weirdest day ever, in my opinion. All these stores have like major sales. It is the day after Thanksgiving and roughly a month before Christmas. When I was younger I thought the reason they called it “Black Friday” was because if you looked at all of the people from they sky, it looked black. I now know that this is not true, although it could be possible. There are so many people out it could look like that, but who knows.
After we did our minimal shopping, my family saw Happy Feet. It was a good movie. It was fun to go to the movies all as a family. I can not remember the last time we went to the movies as a family. It must have been a long time ago. I had a nice Thanksgiving and a relaxing break.
Thanksgiving is a very nice time for me and my family. We all go to my grandmother’s house. There are 25 of us if everyone can make it, and we usually all do. Next year there will be two new additions also. It is noisy and confusing, but I love it.
My grandmother is an excellent cook. We always start off the day with home made sticky buns that my grandfather brings over for us. Then I just kind of sit around the house in front of the fire until about three o’clock. Then we get ready and go over to my grand mom’s house.
Once we get there and say hello to everyone, all of the guys head into the family room to watch football. All of the girls sit around in the kitchen and talk about where they are going to go shopping on Black Friday. Everyone is called into the kitchen for dinner which is basically a buffet line. There is everything you can imagine to eat, and it all smells delicious. Unfortunately I have not been able to eat at Thanksgiving dinner for the past few years because of wrestling, but I still enjoy being with my whole family.
Once everyone is done eating dinner and has shoved down the delicious pies we carry on one of our family’s old traditions. We all put our names on a piece of paper and put it in a hat. We write on the piece of paper one thing that we want for Christmas. Everyone draws one name and buys that gift to give to whoever’s name they drew when we all return on Christmas Eve.
Thanksgiving is very fun and relaxed. It’s nice to catch up on things with your family. There should be more holidays like it.
MY Turkey Day holiday was great. This Thanks giving gave me the impression that people don't have to have a giant turkey with the perfect food spread out, dressed in fine clothing. In fact the best part of my thanksgiving was spent in a Philadelphia bowling ally and a buffet. I had known about the day's events for a while and did not know how well everything was going to turn out, because some of my family members I had not seen each other in years. For example my cousin Tasha had gone to Iraq for the war so I was unable to talk to her.
Then when the had finally come I was dreadful, but after we started to laugh and talk I began to have a great time. We began to talk about the "old days" and when my two older cousins would throw me over the balcony in my old hoome as a baby. As the minutes went on and we eating dinner at a buffet the idea hit me that this was one of my best Thanksgiving holidays in a few years.
Thanksgiving is my all time favorite holiday, mostly because i am in love with food, and also because i get to see a lot of my family which always results in fun times. It has been held at my house for as long as I can remember. The usual family that comes is my dad’s sister and her family and my grandfather. They always arrive around 3 o’clock, and we usually start eating at least an hour later. Every year, I eat until I'm full, which is never, and continue eating after that. It's Thanksgiving, I can eat as much as i want to. After we are finished, my dad’s brother and his family come for dessert. This is usually when the fun begins because I am very close with my cousins, Anna and Megan. When we are together, we are basically inseparable. Dinner is always good, but desert is amazing. We always have all different kinds of pie, cookies, and a lot of other things. My Aunt Mary always brings the most delicious sour cream drop cookies. We also have ice cream cake because my little sister Haleigh’s birthday is always around the same time as Thanksgiving. The rest of the night usually consists of just spending time with the people I love the most. Thanksgiving doesn’t usually end that night however. For the past two years, my cousins, my two sisters, and I have decided to go shopping on Black Friday. We don’t do what normal people would do however. We like to stand out, so we dress up in the craziest outfits we can put together. It has become tradition. It may be sort of embarrassing when we first walk into the mall, but eventually we get used to the weird stares and laughter from fellow shoppers. It may seem crazy, but it’s a lot of fun, especially when we’re together. As i said before, Thanksgiving is most definitely my favorite holiday, and will always remain that way.
Thanksgivng is always alot of fun for me. We have a break from the busy days of school and the tons of work that comes with it. We also have a holiday to look forward to. And you cant forget the food. Theres so much of it. There is turkey, ham, macaroni and cheese and so much more. I usually have to have seconds and thirds.
My family and I were supposed to host this year but unfortunatley we could not. So we all I went to my aunt's house in Pennsylvania. It's a two hour drive but it was worth it. I had alot of fun seeing all my family members and hanging out with my cousins. We all talked and listened to music. I believe thanksgiving represents the time we get together with our family and acknowlegde how grateful we all are for the things they do in our lives. Somtimes people can be ungrateful and thanksgiving is a time where we can show our gratefulness. I am really looking foward to thanksgiving '07.
I believe my man Joey T. said it best "sit around a table and eat until the button pops off my pants". This year, like every other year in the past, me and my family of six went down (or up, Im really bad with directions) to grandparent's humble abode in Maryland. There at the house already was an aunt and an uncle with their family to greet us. This is the same "crew" that always celebrates every Turkey-day together. My dad has another brother but he's in the Navy and lives in Virginia and I only see him every once in a while. So there we were, like every other family in America, sitting there watching the Dallas game and stuffing our face. Which by the way, I loved when T.O. made his "donation" to the Salvation Army. I love Thanksgiving because it's quality time with the fam and it's also a feast. At this time you talk about almost anything while eating to your hearts content. Thanksgiving is definately one of favorite holidays because I don't need to worry about who I'm buying a gift for. It's a simple time to enjoy your families company and have a good time.
Thanksgiving. One of the most boring holidays of the year for me. I spend it with my dad's side of the family every year at my house in Maryland. It consists of vigorously cleaning the house, making food, and trying to make ourselves look presentable for the family. Soon my cousins, aunt, and uncle would be over and our nice clean house becomes dirty again. Then my grandmother and her boyfriend (she is divorced)come over. Her boyfriend sits down on the couch and watches the football game. He puts the volume up SO loud it would blow your eardrums out. My older cousin would always brag about his wrestling and my younger cousin wouldn't say anything at all. My aunt and grandmother would talk to my mom about the latest gossip in the family. My dad, uncle, and my mothers boyfriend would be glued to the football game and would only yell now and again. The same thing would go on for five hours until everyone left. The house was dirty again, and the left overs were piled high. Thanksgiving is a boring holiday because I know what everyone is gonna do before they do it and I always know who is coming.
My thanksgiving day was pretty run-of-the-mill. I slept 'til 11 o'clock, which was nice (that's pretty late for me). When I woke up, my dad had arrived from New Jersey and my mom was there, of course. I woke up just in time to see the last of the marching bands and color guards on the many parades. I actually saw A.I. Dupont's band on the Philadelphia parade, which I thought was pretty cool. After my brother woke up at 1:30, we all piled in the car for the two-hour trip to my grandmother's house. All I have to say about that is that I have a new appreciation for my iPod. It got me through my brother's, father's and mother's sometimes boring and most of the time, loud conversations.
When we did get there, we all settled down at the table for turkey and all the works of a Thanksgiving dinner.
I'll just say that I was very tired after that dinner!
Thanksgiving. What an interesting holiday. Many of the other holidays that I celebrate are religious, or have something to do with love. Thanksgiving does, in a way, have to do with love; it just isn't worn on its shirt sleeve as Valentine's Day is. My lovely Thanksgiving was spent in Maryland. I spent it with around sixteen relatives. There are three babies/toddlers in our family, since I am the oldest grandchild as well as cousin, I have the..honor of looking after them when no one else wants to. I never mind watching them though, they make me smile at their simple-mindedness. About three years ago, I was considered old enough to eat dinner with the adults, which, at the time, I thought was a big accomplishment. Although now, its not that interesting because I never want to talk to any of them about anything. I occasionally eat with the younger grandchildren for that reason. One tradition that we have always carried out through the years is saying prayers and breaking bread. Our main church as a family is Holy Family Church. Every Thanksgiving, Holy Family Church gives out small rolls of bread with a prayer attached to it. The prayer is read before dinner from whichever grandchild wants to read it. Its usually not me. After that, we break the bread into small pieces so everyone can have one. Since the roll is so small, and my family so large, we usually only get a bite of the bread; but the bread is a metaphor of Jesus breaking bread, so how much bread we each get doesn't matter. My family tends to forget that the reason that we celebrate Thanksgiving is because of the Natives breaking bread with the Americans, as I'm sure many others have as well. But at least its another holiday to hopefully bring together the family. Plus, without Thanksgiving, we wouldn't be able to say 'Happy Turkey Day!'; which you have to admit, is a pretty fun thing to say.
Thanksgiving! When I hear the word all I think about is a ton of food that I later wish I hadn’t eaten, football, and Black Friday. Most years Thanksgiving morning is filled with the smell of the turkey being stuffed and the sound of the Thanksgiving Day parades on T.V., and the commotion going on in the kitchen. This year was a whole different story. Usually I wake up around 11 o’clock on this holiday, but this year I was awake by 6 o’clock in the morning. My day off and I was awake and at St. Marks earlier then ever. I had football practice, which started at 8, and I arrived at school around 7:15 A.M. The reason for football practice was because we made the playoffs and were getting ready for the first round against William Penn. We had practice in the freezing cold for about 2 hours and I got back home around 11:00. When I the walked in the door I thought I had died and went to Heaven when I got a whiff of the delicious smell coming from the kitchen where I found my Mom slaving over the stove. When I got home I relaxed with my Dad and brother and watched some high school football while my Mom and sister did the cooking. (Mostly my Mom, you know Morgan can’t cook, Mr. Fiorelli, I mean you can tell by looking at her haha) My relatives began to arrive around 1:00 and we all just hung out and talked about things, which is always good so you can catch up on important stuff. The big meal was scheduled for about 3:00 and everyone couldn’t wait to eat because we were all starving. I think as the day went on the food smelled better and better making the wait even harder. We sat down to eat at about 3:30 with my family and relatives surrounding me. It was a great feeling to all be together under one roof spending this day of thanks together. My sister read us a prayer and we all sat around the table saying what we are thankful for before we began to dig in! The food looked and smelled outstanding and I began to pile up what seemed like10 tens pounds of food. We all went to work on our food and it turned out it looked and smelled as good as it tasted. I finished my first plate of food in about 5 minutes as did most of my family and I went up for seconds. On Thanksgiving while your eating you always get this certain feeling. It’s a feeling everyone has probably experienced on this holiday. The feeling is when you keep eating just for fun and because it’s Thanksgiving you feel the need to keep eating even though you’re so full it feels like you are going to explode. Well, this feeling is how I felt after starting my second serving of food. Within 15 minutes the table was surrounded by about 12 people sick to their stomachs and all forks were set aside. Another thing I realized about Thanksgiving is that it takes an extremely long amount of time to cook and prepare the food when it takes about 15 minutes to eat the actual meal. After dinner we all just crashed in the family room waiting to be able to move again. It took about an hour to digest and during that time we watched the Cowboys football game. After watching some of the game we had dessert around 7 o’clock because by then everyone was hungry. Dessert was also delicious, and overall this years Thanksgiving Day was amazing. It was filled with a lot of football and a ton of food. Some other exciting things I did over break were shopping on black Friday, more football, and just hung out with my friends. Shopping on black Friday was insane. Although, I didn’t get up at 2:00 A.M. in the morning to go shopping, I did shop at the mall for the great sales. It was very crowded and every step I took I think I ran into someone else I knew. I bought a lot of clothes on black Friday, and it was well worth the rush and chaos while shopping. Also, over break I had a couple more football practices but all the practice eventually resulted in a win over William Penn in the first round of the playoffs. My Thanksgiving break was fantastic and it was a great time for giving thanks, eating a lot of food, and spending good quality time with my family and relatives.
My thanksgivings have been getting pretty fun these past few years. This year, woke up around 7:30 and had good old football practice. I mean why wouldn’t we, had to prep for Sallies. After that I went to one of the best turkey bowls ever. We played for about 2 hours and after everyone on the field was completely drenched in mud, we called it quits. From that point it was time to head home and get ready for dinner. Once we got to my aunts house, we all really started to have fun. Before dinner we played lots of pool, foosball, and air hockey. Its fun playing those games with your little cousins, aunts, uncles, and especially your grandparents. My aunt has a little two player basketball shootout type thing, it was fun playing that with my Mommom.(Haha) Also, we had to have a few Madden tournaments while the other televisions have the games on. Dinner is getting more and more laid back these past few years, it’s just not as serious as I remember from when I was a toddler which is good because I won’t be scolded for cracking a joke here or there. After dinner we went back to the Madden tournaments, having good laughs with all of our aunts and uncles, and just hanging out with the family. At the end of the night mostly everyone headed out pretty early but we usually stay late and help my aunt clean up. My immediate family usually stays, my Mom and Aunt Christine usually will have a glass of wine and my cousins and my brother will go and do something like play basketball or air hockey or find something to do. Thanksgiving is fun because it gives you time to relax and catch up with all of your family. Thanksgiving is always a good way to realize what you have within your family, it’s always good fun. It is something different to be able to have fun with your family and not be with your friends. Thanksgiving this year was really fun and I’m hoping that each year they will continue to be fun.
I had a very, very, very busy Thanksgiving break. My weekend was full of visiting relatives, eating, dancing, and then eating some more. It began in Tuesday night when my parents and I drove up to Andover, Massachusetts to visit with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. On Wednesday my parents and I drove up along the coastline of Massachusetts and New Hampshire and we stopped at a little restaurant called the Hungary Traveler. My Dad and I always stop there on our trips north to eat their excellent lobster rolls and their homemade clam chowder. That night we returned to my Aunt Louisa’s house to do something none of us had done in at least five years. We all sat down in front of the TV and played Dr. Mario and MarioKart on the old system of Nintendo. We finished up the night watching the Bruins vs. the Penguins hockey game. The next day was Thanksgiving and we went to my Aunt Joann and Uncle Dan’s house. There we stuffed ourselves with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, pees and loads of desserts. Then we watched the Dallas vs. Tampa game. (BOOOO Dallas!)
On Friday we packed up our things and drove to Philadelphia. Every year Thanksgiving weekend is the weekend of the Mid-Atlantic Irish Dance Championships. We stayed overnight at the Loews Hotel and on Saturday morning I competed. I didn’t do as well as I had hoped, but I also did not get as much practice as I had hoped. (I broke my elbow three weeks before the competition, disabling me from practicing much before the competition.) Overall, I’m just happy I got the opportunity to dance. My sister drove up to meet me in Philadelphia and we stayed the night in Philly while my mom and dad drove home. On Sunday my sister and I drove home and we had our own Thanksgiving meal with my sister. I recuperated the rest of the day watching TV and football and on Monday I had to catch up on all of my homework.
As you can tell I did not have a relaxed Thanksgiving break. I was probably more tired after the vacation then before it. My Thanksgiving was a lot of fun.
My holiday break over thanksgiving was really nothing special. I mean, nothing that great happened. There were no real big surprises for me, no special family members that came down to visit me. Although, it was definitely one of the tougher vacation breaks that I've had.
All the hard work that I did over the break came from wrestling practice. I don't know if you've ever been to a wrestling practice... but trust me when I say they're a lot harder than most other sport practices, especially the ones at St. Marks. So basically, it was just us running sprints for four days with a bunch of turkey in out stomachs. If you can think of a sports practice that requires more endurance than that-- then I'd love to hear it.
Not only did I have to do this, but on Saturday I had to wake up very early to go down to Red Lion Christian academy for a wrestling scrimmage. And trust me, I was wrestling the BIG guys. But at least I was lucky that I won all my matches there. I guess practice really does make perfect.
So after being near the breaking point I finally got a day off on Sunday. But rest was short because the very next day we were back practicing again.
Overall, I guess it really wasn't as bad a break as I try to make it out to be. I mean there certainly were some advantages to it. I mean I did get to have some fun with my friends, mind you though, not nearly as much as I would have liked. And practice really isn't that bad. I mean sure it's tough, but it's also a good way to hang out with friends and get to know your teammates. So really when thinking about it, I actually did have a pretty good break.
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