thanksgiving is horseshit.

i guess the idea behind thanksgiving is to get together with your family, and be thankful for each other and all that sappy crap. the thing is, when i get together with all my family, i am mostly thankful that i only have to get together with all of them a couple of times a year. this year, i am supposed to go buy a bunch of groceries that i don't have money for, so that i can cook a bunch of shit i don't even like, to take to the THREE different thanksgiving ordeals that we are obligated to attend. first there will be my maternal side of the family (minus mom, who just moved away). my sisters and i aren't good cooks, so i'm sure there's going to be ruined food, and pissed off cooks to start the morning off. without a doubt, my sister and her fiance will be fighting, and there's about a 50/50 chance that my sister will indeed be sober. everyone will act like a jackass,as usual. we never make it through the day without some kind of drama. after that, it's off to dad's house to see his family. we only get together 2 times a year, thanksgiving and christmas. i barely know them. everyone spends the whole time quizzing me about whether and when i am going back to school or work, and when i'm going to have to babies for them and so on. i leave feeling like i have been interrogated. it's more like being at a job interview than hanging out with family. finally, we'll be going to hubby's family get together, where his sister in law is sure to act nutty. she's my husband's family's equivilant to my crazy sister, lol.

if it were up to me, hubby and i would just stay home and order food in. i love my family, but i hate dumbass, meaningless traditions that we just do because we are "supposed" to.

 

Yeah I guess it would be sorta akward to just have Thanksgiving because youre "supposed" to. I dont have much of a family, just my mom and dad, who have been divorced for over 10 years. This year Im living in my own apartment, so theyre coming over here to eat. Ive never actually HAD a big family Thanksgiving, just the three of us. Yeah, its weird since they arnt even together, but we only have each other and I enjoy it.

Anyways, I hope the day turns out better for you than youre expecting

 

Thanksgiving has always been one of the most important holidays for me. Unlike other religious feasts, it is a celebration of Americanism and I am actually proud to have had the opportunity to bring it overseas more than once.

I had glorious holidays growing up on the east coast with trips to an aunt and uncle who had a kosher butcher shop. When I was in college and on my own I went to the home of my roommate's mom and I remember leaves changing color and sometimes snow.

Since I moved to California I can only recall one Thanksgiving that was the rock bottom pits; when I offered to feed the poor at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. The homeless are seldom thankful and I was more disgusted with the folks who were running the show.

I'm sorry that the holiday has taken on such a negative vibe and I hope some time soon you will be able to host your own true holiday that carries the spirit and meaning of true thankfulness.

 

What, you don't love celebrating the genocide of countless Native Americans?

Yeah, I generally thought the "holiday" was crap. Now I'm with a guy who gets all into turkey day & xmas (which I don't celebrate either, not being christian & all), because they were the few times his family would actually spend together & avoid fighting.

So, this year, his mother & sister are flying in to visit for a few days -- they'll be flying all day Wed., then have a 2 hour ride from the airport, yet his mom will probably want to do some baking as soon as she gets here... God his family is weird! Of course, the fun part will be Thurs., when they get to meet my dad & brother (who will spend most of the day outside working on my truck anyway!)... This should be great fun...

 

Its a wast of food.

 

i like it cause its a whole day to celebrate food. oh god how i love food.

 

i guess im pretty lucky. i have a wonderful family on both sides...

i love to take thanksgiving to give a special tribute to the natives of this land to and express my thankfulness that the people that i love and care about and the things i have.

plus i love to cook and i love to eat!

my mom makes the BEST turkey, mashed potatoes, filling and PUMPKIN PIE!!

i LOVE thanksgiving. for me... it's such a nice, relaxing, pleasant day.

 

I love Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have so much that I am thankfull for.

I started decorating my house already for Christmas. My house looks awesome. I have Santa's and Snowmen. I don't go overboard.

This year we are going to my in-laws. I love going over there. I'm bring the dessert.

 

peanuts,
i like christmas more than thanksgiving, but my family manages to blow it all out of proportion too. it ends up being a big stressful mess, all about presents and money and crap like that. i can't wait until we can start our own traditions, with our kids.
we're putting up a tree that's about a foot tall this year. lol. we normally go to a lot of trouble, and no one ever comes over to see it, so this year, we decided, to hell with it.
i'm bringing the dessert everywhere too. to my absolute horror, i just spent $70 dollars at the grocery store, buying ingredients. ugh.

 

All those commercialized 'let us hippocrits pretend to be all lovey dovey and happy for a day' holidays annoy me.

 

i agree, bird. everyone thinks my husband and i are wierd because we don't celebrate holidays like valentine's day. i figure, what the hell. you're either nice all year, or you aren't. if you aren't, you can't make it all better in one day anyway, no matter what you buy somebody.

 

I spent $60.00. lol and I am only bringing brownies, oh and a dessert bake. I had to pick up a couple extra things too.

For me my Holidays have always been fun but they got a lot more fun when I had a family of my own. We have our own traditions. We actually don't go anywhere Christmas day. We go downstairs, light the fire, open presents, and hang out in our pj's all day. The one year it snowed and it was the best Christmas I have ever had. We save the traveling for the following weekend. Our family is spread out a lil' so we can get away with doing this.

When we go hunting for our tree we have the best time. We look like the Griswald's. I decorate my tree in pictures. I have pictures in photo frames that I tied ribbon too. Our tree looks awesome. I don't care if anyone sees it. I get to look at it and admire it.

Could you talk with your Love and start your own Family traditions now?

 

nightmarehippygirl - perhaps you should invite all your family over your house for festivus, might even things out a bit

 

we went to 3 different families last year for christmas, and i swore i'd never do it again. it was so hectic. i'm sure i will though.

somehow my hubby and i always end up getting dominated by whatever our families want to do. nobody wants to hurt anyone's feelings, so we are just along for the ride. we have sort of demanding families, mine particularly.my hubby is not really a holiday person either, which is part of the reason i nixed the tree this year. i normally decorate and undecorate it myself, and no one ever sees it, so it seemed like a wasted effort. besides, we still have kittens here...i'm not sure if we could get them to leave the tree alone if we tried.

so far, i'm feeling bummed about the holidays this year. sorry to be such a killjoy, though.

 

I think I am lovey dovey all the time so when Holidays come I get a good dose of love and happiness. I probably annoy you.

 

lol, dhs. the airing of grevances could last weeks...

 

That's a great idea. Would your family come over to your place for Christmas? Then people would look at your tree, decorations, and you won't have to travel.

OR...would this be a total nightmare?

 

peanuts they wouldn't come to my house. they say it's too far away. (i'm not sure how they justify that in their minds, since i have to drive exactly the same distance to see them....about an hour.) actually this issue sort of typifies the sort of onesided crap they're all about, lol.

 

we haven't celebrated any of the sabbats this year because of all the tension between suresh and i. right now i'm at my dad's; he made a big deal about how much he needed help with the house and all, it was just to get me to come down early. i'm cooking almost the entire meal myself (they cook their own turkey; i'm vegetarian.) and right now i wish i were anywhere else. i just don't have the emotional stamina for this right now. after the holiday, i don't know whether i should stay here or go back to rochester, since suresh lied to me about returning to conselling, but dad's being a psycho in his own way, and damien's behavior has been atrocious. i don't know whether i should go back or not, if i'm going to stay married or not, and i'm stressed out about starting a business. i really don't want to deal with saying prayers of thankfulness, when i've had such a shitty year, to a god i don't believe in, over a dead bird carcass i can't eat, with family i don't want to e around now.

 

kitty...i don't eat meat either. i'm more outcasted as a vegetarian in my family at thanksgiving than at any other time.