Thanksgiving - Yea or Nay?

So Thanksgiving is just 3 weeks away.  Are you ready?

Thanksgiving is an interesting holiday - a whole day devoted to hanging out with your family (or trapped with your family) eating and drinking, watching parades and football.  Is that how the pilgrims envisioned it?

As a child, I loved Thanksgiving.  My parents took me out of school on Wednesday.  We made the long trip to Arkansas to visit my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousin.  I didn't cook.  I didn't clean.  I just had to endure the boredom of the car trip to see the rest of my family, which I thought was awesome!

Then, I got older and Thanksgiving just became an obligatory holiday that forced me to deal with awful car and air travel when I knew I would be doing it all over again a few weeks later.  And eventually, I got married and in-laws came to visit and my feelings about Thanksgiving went from "ambivalence" to "I kind of want to shoot myself".

Well, last year, Thanksgiving totally changed.  We created a new tradition!  Our friends decided to have Thanksgiving together.  A group of us goes to the Turkey Trot in the morning, which is a good way to not feel so guilty about the dinner later on.  The kids love it, too!  Then, everyone brings one or two dishes to the dinner in the afternoon.  No one has to spend all day cooking.  We get to spend the afternoon with people we like, and the kids have a blast playing with each other.  It's no stress and actually a holiday that I look forward to!

Just some food for thought - if Thanksgiving is somewhere between "ambivalent" and "shoot yourself" for you, can you change your traditions?   Maybe you can't change everything and maybe some people won't be 100% on board.  But new traditions have to start somewhere and maybe everyone will thank you for it next year!