Until I came to college, there were two main reasons I never really understood the fuss behind Thanksgiving. First of all, the traditional Thanksgiving feast doesn't consist of my favorite foods. If I had it my way, the crown jewel of the traditional Thanksgiving meal would be Chicken Parmesan, and the sides would consist of bread and Caesar salad. But I suppose that, even though it's not Italian, pumpkin pie could remain as the staple dessert. Secondly, I always used to view Thanksgiving as a holiday I had to go through to get to the Christmas season. Technically, this is still a true statement, but considering I downloaded and have since been obsessively listening to Justin Bieber's "Under the Mistletoe" album the day after Halloween, it's fair to say I no longer view Thanksgiving as a road block to the Christmas season.
After the first three months of school first year, my view of Thanksgiving changed completely. For one, Thanksgiving Break was the first time I has gone home since Fall Break and it was the perfect way to recharge my batteries right before the grueling finals season began. It was also the perfect opportunity to marathon all 10 "Friends" Thanksgiving episodes. But even more so than that, I realized that much like the University's traditions make it unique and timeless, my family's Thanksgiving traditions were a wonderful thing to return home to - and be thankful for - after a semester of intense change and personal growth.
Not only does my love of Thanksgiving originate from time I spent in Charlottesville, my earliest memories of Thanksgiving traditions do as well. When I was younger, my family lived in North Carolina, but my entire dad's side of the family got together in Fairfax to celebrate Thanksgiving. To break up the drive with two young kids, my dad, a 1980 graduate of the Commerce School, insisted we stop in Charlottesville for a night to visit his old stomping grounds. My first memory of the Lawn is running down it with my sister, with my parents not too far behind. We then made our way to the Amphitheater where my sister got up on stage and put on a show for some college kids taking in the scenic autumn day right before Thanksgiving Break. Later that evening, we checked into a hotel and went and saw the 7 p.m. showing of Glenn Close's "101 Dalmatians" at the movie theater in Seminole Square. In the following years, Charlottesville remained our stopping point on the trip to Fairfax for Thanksgiving until we moved there when I was in second grade.
Once we moved to Fairfax, we continued celebrating Thanksgivings there with my dad's side of the family. On Thanksgiving Day we would always venture into Washington, D.C. with my cousins from Chicago and either go walk around the National Zoo or wander in and out of the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. We'd then rush back out to the suburbs and make it to my uncle Bruce's house for Thanksgiving dinner around 4 p.m. Since my dad is one of seven, Thanksgiving is never a small affair and usually there are about 40 people in attendance. We usually have three turkeys and everyone brings a side - my mom always brings her famous pumpkin muffins. We also never all sit at one table, but instead are spread out among three or four tables. Now one of our Thanksgiving traditions is to make fun of my cousin Christina because one year she accidentally put a piece of paper right on top of a candle at the dinner table and it quickly caught on fire. Since it was so crowded, we couldn't get out of our chairs to do anything about it, so the next thing we knew, my uncle Scott grabbed a cup of Sprite from one of the younger kids and threw it on the flames. Thankfully, the only damage done was to Christina's ego, as she has to be reminded of this incident at every Thanksgiving dinner.
When I returned home for Thanksgiving Break as a first year, I was so happy to know that everything about Thanksgiving Day would be unchanged because everything about my life had changed since the last time I celebrated Thanksgiving. It felt just like the good old days - my cousins, sisters and I rode the Metro downtown and swung from the handlebars like we did when we were kids and later that day, we stuffed ourselves full of delicious foods made with pumpkin. That Thanksgiving Break my family also started new traditions, such as getting up at the crack of dawn to go to Target on Black Friday to take advantage of all the great deals. Later in the day, my sisters and I always decorate gingerbread houses while watching the classic Olsen movie, "To Grandmother's House We Go." We also started decorating the house for Christmas during Thanksgiving Break since I wouldn't be home to help decorate during December. On the Saturday of break as we watch what my dad's best friend likes to call "the ongoing battle of culture versus agriculture" - otherwise known as the Virginia versus Virginia Tech football game - we pull out the lights and garland and deck the halls, always complaining about how tangled the lights are and how we need to put them away more carefully this year.
Now that Thanksgiving Break is less than a week away, I can't wait to go home and experience the comfort of family traditions. And even though I am so excited to come back and experience my favorite University holiday traditions, such as Lighting of the Lawn and ugly sweater Christmas parties with my friends, I'm thankful that I finally understand the fuss behind Thanksgiving - and that I get to spend it with the best family in the world.
Katie's column runs biweekly Wednesdays. She can be reached at k.urban@cavalierdaily.com.
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