For some people, Christmas is their favorite holiday. For others, it’s Halloween. Or maybe Easter really gets you excited.

There are so many holidays, ranging from silly to sentimental to serious. There are regional holidays and national holidays (today, for instance, is both National Cookie Monster Day and National Deviled Egg Day) and really obscure holidays that no one hears about unless they particularly love Wikipedia.

For as long as I can remember, though, Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. I would love to tell you it’s because of the warm and utterly joyous feeling I experience when gathering around the dinner table with family, but this is only partially true. The reason I love Thanksgiving is mostly because of the food.

The smell of Thanksgiving falls somewhere between nostalgia and the sensation of I-ate-two-hours-ago-but-everything-smells-so-good-anyway. Some people might be put off by the pure excessiveness of it all, but that’s my favorite part.

You’re caught between wanting everything (except the salad – way too healthy!) and not being able to choose anything. It is the only time I never feel stressed about being unable to make a decision.

After twenty years of good old-fashioned experience, I’ve successfully learned how to have the optimal Thanksgiving:

First – don’t eat what you don’t want. If the stuffing smells alright and you could eat it but don’t absolutely adore it, it is not worth eating! Better save room for the rice and gravy, or mashed potatoes and gravy, or even the roasted vegetables with gravy (hey, gravy is the new black, after all).

Second – eat fast, but not too fast. You’ll end up with a bunch of air in your stomach (never fun) and you’ll feel extremely full. Mostly because of the air. Which is tragic, of course.

Third – don’t skip breakfast. A lot of people think that if they don’t eat breakfast, they’ll be starving by the time Thanksgiving supper rolls around, and can consequently eat more (unless you’re one of those strange people who actually tries to exhibit some restraint on this glorious holiday). Instead, eat something small but sturdy (think eggs and fruit!) for breakfast, and your stomach will be raring to go when the turkey is carved.

Lastly – don’t forget to give thanks. It actually makes the food taste better. Besides, when you’re with family, or friends, or pets, or whomever you hold most dear in the world, being thankful is pretty much the easiest thing in the history of ever.

That is until someone offers you more gravy. (Is that even a question? Give me the boat and no one gets hurt.)

In all seriousness, though, Thanksgiving isn’t my favorite holiday simply because of what we eat. It’s mostly about the way everything (yes, that includes the cranberry-walnut pie) makes us feel. Warm. Happy. Uncomfortably full.

But something else, too, simmers under the surface of these feelings. It’s the sense of security, and well-being, that only comes from being surrounded by faces you know and love, faces as familiar and dear to you as your high school yearbook (actually, probably more. Yearbooks are sometimes terrifying).

Thanksgiving is the day where we are all reminded to live our best life, and give more than we receive. It’s about knowing that, even though you might want to hog the entire vat of turkey gravy for yourself, it feels even better sharing it.

It's about knowing that the modest and humble salad still awaits, long after the rich taste of stuffing has lost its flavor.