Thanksgiving Act I

Ah, Thanksgiving. The time for family and binge eating. Very few holidays bring the same joy as this most sacred celebration of the Native Americans saving the original settlers from starvation. A quick aside, Lies My Teacher Told Me has a great breakdown of how the original Thanksgiving actually went down and is a great book if you want to learn what your US History textbook should have taught you.

I digress. For me, Thanksgiving is a pain in the ass. It's gotten better over the years, though, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Most Thanksgivings I will celebrate three times - my Mom's house, my Dad's house, and my fiance's house. Prior to this year the schedule went something like this:

• 9:30 - Wake up
• 9:30:04 - Shut eyes tightly and hope today is not Thanksgiving
• 9:35 - Hear beginning sounds of Thanksgiving Mother Edition
• 9:40 - Call fiance make sure we are still doing this
• 9:45 - 10:00 - Shower, select pants and shirt with most breathing room
• 10:00-11:00 - Parades, dog wrangling and table setting. At some point fiance arrives with great gift my mom loves.
• 11:00-12:30 - Thanksgiving Mother Edition
• 12:30-1:00 - Drive to Dad's
• 1:00-4:00 - Recovery. Watch football, nap and set the table for Spicy Thanksgiving
• 4:00-5:30 - Eat Thanksgiving classics so spicy you long for thai food to break the heat
• 5:30-6:00 - Drive to future in-law's
• 6:00-8:00 - Football, small talk, prayer to a higher power that if I survive I promise to live life differently.
• 8:00-10:00 - Thanksgiving Round 3. Struggle through a plate of food.
• 10:01 - Slip into a food coma on the couch

This year is different, though. I spent yesterday with my Mom and today will be spent with my fiance's family. So far it has made Thanksgiving a much more enjoyable experience.