Celebrate Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. It's the day we remember what we're thankful for. It's the day we gather together with friends and family for a feast that will stand out as one of the biggest meals of the year. Thanksgiving is the one day we know we're going to eat too much but don't regret it. This is a day for football, food, family, maybe a little tryptophan-induced nap. Many people celebrate Thanksgiving in many different ways.

Different Thanksgiving Tradtitions

Traditions have come and gone in my lifetime. There have been things my family has done together, and there are things I have done on my own. As times changed, I found myself with different obligations on some years and other years left me with no obligations. Whatever the year called for, I didn't mind it as long as there was a turkey drumstick and some pie.

Parades and Football

My earliest memories of Turkey Day are of living in East Lynn. Thanksgiving morning was fun for my family because the marching bands would go past my house on their way to (then) Manning Bowl. My family would watch the mini parade from our front steps. Sometimes, we would go to the football game later that day and watch Lynn Classical play Lynn English.

More often than not, my family would host thanksgiving, and my father's side of the family would come to the house. I remember eating a lot of food, sometimes too much food. I would be tired from eating too much and would be sent to my room for a nap. When I woke up and went back downstairs, the tables would be laden with all kinds of pies. I loved pie and I still do.

We moved across town and stopped hosting Thanksgiving. Sometimes it would just be the five of us. Mom, Dad, me, and the siblings. Sometimes we would go to my grandmother's. Either way, we would eat turkey and fixings, then pie. There would be a football game on television. The best part of the celebration was no school the next day. A day off from school was always something to look forward to.

Years later we were in high school and on the football team. Thanksgiving meant an early morning. Sometimes it was a bus ride to another school. Sometimes it was freezing cold. I remember one year it poured. Either way, we went back home or to my grandmothers for more celebrating.

Working on Thanksgiving

I graduated high school and went to college. There was no football for me, but I still had places to be. The restaurant I worked at was open on Thanksgiving, and it was one of the busiest days of the year. From the time we opened to the time we closed, I was going from station to kitchen to station, hauling trays of dirty dishes to the dishwasher and heading back out to the floor with an empty tray so waitstaff could pile more dishes on the tray. At the end of it all, I would go home and heat up a plate of leftovers, then some pie. After that, I went to bed and looked forward to a day off before going back to work on Saturday.

Football came back to my list of Thanksgiving traditions soon after. I wrote for some newspapers. I would do double duty, covering a game on Wednesday night, going back to write a story, and then back to another game on Thursday morning. It was another time of dealing with cold and sometimes snow or freezing rain. After talking to the necessary interviewees, I was back in my car, heading to the office to write a story, and then home for Thanksgiving dinner.

The years where I didn't need to hustle somewhere to work were enjoyed and appreciated. I liked the idea of just going to a game and enjoying it. Not having to hurry back to an office to write stories or make it to work on time to wait on other people who wanted to enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner. I could watch a game, go home and have dinner with my family.

Thanksgiving Today

Fast forward to when it was Wife and me. No kids. We knew we were going to be somewhere, but that wasn't until later in the afternoon. These Thanksgiving mornings meant relaxing in the living room, sipping coffee flavored with some Bailiey's or Kahlua. It would be the two of us resting before getting into the car and fighting traffic on our way to see family and celebrate Thanksgiving. We got a little Thanksgiving surprise when The Oppressed joined our family on the week of Thanksgiving years ago. Now, The Oppressed joins me at the annual Thanksgiving football game. It's one of the few times I can make it to a football game, and I'm thankful to be able to make it with one of my children.

This year, my family will be hosting Thanksgiving. We'll entertain family. Hopefully there will be football on TV. Hopefully I can make it to the local game. There will be turkey and pie and maybe a tasty beverage later that night. I'll talk to my family that night or the next day. My wife and I will no doubt be tired from all of the running around getting ready for the big gathering, but in the end it will be worth it. I'll be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. I'll recount the traditions of the past, but most of all, I'm grateful that I don't have to work. Happy Thanksgiving.