Growing up Thanksgiving was always a pretty good time for me. It started off with all of us piling into a van and heading off to my Nanny and Pop-pop's house for some home cooked PA Dutch food. A couple years later, when my grandmother's health started to be more and more of an issue for her, my mom offered to host the gathering to take some of the strain off of her.

I rejoiced at the decision - I absolutely loved setting up fancy dinners and coordinating decorations and dishes, everything. I've been throwing impromptu tea parties since I was able to bake, so the opportunity to plan a holiday celebration for my family was so incredibly exciting. That continued for a few years, and, no matter how torn apart I felt, no matter how upset with my family I was, I would stay up til three the night before or get up at six and start decorating our living room.

That was, until I moved out. It would've been a little simpler had I just moved an hour or so away, but I was thousands of miles away, on the other side of the country. Two good friends came over, one from back East, and we spent Thanksgiving eating food on my floor (since I had no table at that point), and watching High School Musical and Harriet the Spy. I had to go to work at three am for a Black Friday shift the next day, and wasn't able to say goodbye when they left.

And then this year, I spent the holiday at work. However awful that sounds, the chef and my manager - hell, even my manager's wife - took time out of their day to make a full on feast for us. I'm talking turkey, pork, cranberry sauce, two types of stuffing, candied yams, empanadas, two types of pie - anything and everything that you'd want for a Thanksgiving dinner. After grabbing plates, we all sat around a table and just talked. My manager jumped up to get me a drink before I could fetch it myself, and throughout the evening everyone went out of there way to make the day a really good one.

I learned a lot from the two Thanksgivings I've spent away from my family. It really doesn't matter what you're doing - working or relaxing, as long as you have a good group of people, large or small, it doesn't matter how formal or informal your celebration is. All that really matters is the group of people you have around you.