As we reach the close of October (technically right now it's already over), I'm remembering how much I love November. Mainly, I just love Thanksgiving as a holiday and Thanksgiving week as a much-needed break.
November is the calm before the storm that is December. December is great - don't get me wrong, I love Christmas - but it's always crazy. Along with Christmas come vacation plans and presents to buy and parties to attend. There's also the dreaded finals week. Ick. December is just generally busy and somewhat stressful of a month, as superficial and feeble attempts to salvage the last bits of the year create an underlying sense of panic.
November on the other hand is a respite to the year that passes by like a blur. For me, fall guard ends this month, and Winterguard starts. By mid-month, we're done with one season and making a relaxed entry into another. Plus, I get to go home on Fridays for the first time since the beginning of the school year. November also follows a big Bengali celebration that although enjoyable, tends to be quite a massive (and hence stressful) event to put on. It's that type of event that's great, but you're relieved once it's over. Last but not least: this is the month when we get our first real school break of the year. Our county doesn't believe in the idea of a fall break (for reasons that escape me), and therefore the longest breaks we've gotten in the past three months were two 3-day weekends. Which is honestly pathetic - highschoolers are busy, we need breaks! Anyhow, this makes me appreciate Thanksgiving break that much more.
My family has stayed in town the past few years on thanksgiving, and so our large feast is a pleasant intimate gathering of my immediate family: four people. It sounds rather lonely, but to the contrary I feel more comfortable than I would with any additional people at the table. Since my Mom usually cooks dinner every night - and mind you, she's a fantastic cook - on Thanksgiving my father and I take over the kitchen. It's been a tradition for the past few years now. Since neither of use are very talented in the culinary arts, we generally use clippings of recipes from newspapers and magazines (and of course, the handy dandy internet) to create our menu. Both my dad and I are very math-y, detail-oriented people, so we come up with exact grocery lists and a sketch of the logistics of executing the dinner. If you see our plans, it looks as if we're attacking some fancy industrial engineering project. Over the years, these plans have led to a few house favorite dishes and a few not-so-favorited more infamous dishes. It's a learning experience.
I also have this fond attachment to thanksgiving food. Butternut squash anything is absolutely delicious. Pumpkin pies and spice lattes, cinnamon flavored stuff, cider, etc. Even though turkey and beans and potatoes are quite mediocre on their own, their attachment to the "thanksgiving feast" makes them meaningful and therefore tasty.
That brings me to my favorite part of thanksgiving. The food and the traditions are delightful, but what I really love about my favorite holiday is the meaning behind it. First of all - there's no religious connotation to it, and being a not-so-religious person I like that. Second of all - it's the most universal holiday. Every single person on this earth has something to be thankful for. If you are living and breathing, you have the holy gift of life to be thankful for. Thanksgiving is a day when we forget about the things we normally complain about. We forget our desires and don't bother with gifts like all the other holidays. Thanksgiving is when we remember and focus upon the thousands of things we do have. Before eating, each of the four people in my family (I start since I'm the youngest) talks about what they're thankful for. It's the type of the thing that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, and I'm even getting sentimental just writing about being thankful. I'm always left with a humble reminder of all the things in my life that are going right.
Lovely.
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