Thanksgiving: A Two Part Post

Thanksgiving was always a stressful holiday for me as a kid.  It was a big production.  We'd pack up our stuff and drive until I thought I'd go crazy (or vomit, whichever came first), only to get out of the car in the most dreaded place of all: the Deep South, a land with a history as unfortunate as its accent.

Practically Maycomb, all of the family I never knew I had would gather for Thanksgiving and tell me how big I'd grown.  Being cripplingly shy and petrified of unknown adults, I'd hide in my room most of the day.  If I had to interact, I gave curt one-word answers and followed my mother around like a puppy.  This is kind of cute if you are 4, but imagine this going on until I was about 17.  Yeah... stressful holiday.

A hand-print turkey I made with my kiddos this year.
Notice the William and Mary colors.  And yes, he IS
standing in the Sunken Gardens in front of the Wren Building.

By college we stopped traveling and I asserted my dietary independence (let's talk about how hard it was to choke down that "No, Thank You" Bite of turkey... or as it was called back then the "Eat some turkey or you're not leaving the table" Bite), and oh, man, Thanksgiving quickly become one of my favorite holidays.  Time off from school, hanging out with the fam, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, yummy vegetarian food, Pecan Pie, champagne and/or Kahlua: it was awesome.

Then I found out I couldn't go home for Thanksgiving this year.  I thought today's post would be the saddest, most depressing post yet.  But oh my god, people are awesome and no one wants you to be alone on Thanksgiving.

About a week ago, the cast of my show was talking about Thanksgiving plans, and I said in an off-hand manner (devoid of self-pity) that I'd probably be eating Chinese Food in my apartment.  A couple days later (Monday) one of my more gregarious castmates shoots me a text inviting me to her fiancé's (the stage manager, btw) father's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  It took me awhile to decide b/c all I really know about them is how damn eccentric they are, but in the end I decided that an eccentric, awkward Thanksgiving was better than no Thanksgiving at all.

To be continued...