The night before Thanksgiving, my siblings and I hid away in my sister’s room, and we broke out the colored paper, scissors, and staplers. We spent hours creating turkey hands, name plates, placemats, and other crafts to spice up our dining room. The reason being, this year, our family made a unanimous decision to do something special, to make Thanksgiving different from other nights that we eat turkey for dinner.
Aside from getting days off of school, there are lots of other things that I love about Thanksgiving, and holidays in general. I love the anticipation of waiting for these special treats. I like looking forward to the turkey and other great food. I like thinking about the laughing and storytelling that will occur. I also enjoy the general family bonding. Sometimes, it feels like our lives get so criss-crossed and hectic, and this hinders us from having family dinners every night, or connecting as a unit.
Holidays, thankfully, are a time that we can appreciate each other. They are a time that we can talk for as long as we want about how our lives are going. Holidays are important, because they create memories with each other that we can look back on. My dad has a story we beg him to tell us all the time, and it’s stories like these that will be told around the dinner table as we eat the food.
However, the best part for me of Thanksgiving is the peace that resides over the house after. Being a house with multiple children, things can get crazy, and occasionally, bickering breaks out. After Thanksgiving, people seem pretty calm. We feel grateful for all the things that we have, and the general feeling of family keeps everybody happy. I like that the holidays renew my feeling of kinship with my family.
Holidays are one of my favorite times of the year. Not only do I get days off from school, but it’s also the times that I feel closest to my family. However, the holidays aren’t special on their own. It’s the memories you create with those you love that make them different from every other day. See you next week!
“Reprinted from Hagel Publications, Inc. dba as Courier Newspapers”