The sweet feeling of being home for break.

The smell of something besides Ramen being prepared for you. The feel of a bed that your parents spent more than $100 on, and the sweet silence of having absolutely no responsibility.

Since being home, I’ve had one task to do, and that was to take care of my dog. And as I’m writing this, my dog is in the other room hopefully not peeing on something.

Thanksgiving doesn’t get enough credit. People end Halloween, then jump straight into eggnog and breaking out the ornaments. Give it a little time people. We’ll get to all that good stuff in a couple of weeks.

Thanksgiving is literally an entire day dedicated to sitting around and eating as much as your stomach can handle. I decided I’m going to try and pace myself this Thanksgiving. You see, what usually happens is that I get so excited about the Pillsbury crescent rolls that I eat about 14 and leave no room for anything else. There's something about the warm, 'fall apart in your mouth,' buttery goodness that doesn’t allow me to stop. Also, there’s the threat that my family will eat all of them before the basket gets to me, so I overcompensate.

But no Marissa, this year will be different. I’m an adult now with great responsibility (like watching my dog), and you can restrain yourself. Let’s keep it to three to eight crescent rolls, tops.

One thing about coming home, for any break, is that you realize how incredibly barbaric you’ve been living like at school.

Whenever I open my fridge at home, I try to take a mental note that this is what a stocked fridge is supposed to look like. My fridge at school is a collection of random beers, leftover takeout, and way too many salad dressings considering how many salads I actually eat. I think somewhere in the back there’s some tomatoes I forgot to use when I was feeling ambitious and pinned a recipe.

I also realize how inadequate my meals are at school. According to my mother, a full meal has a starch, a protein, and some sort of fruit or vegetable. The other day I had nachos and fruit snacks for dinner. So all I was missing was the protein part of the meal.

I really hope when I have a family, I learn how to have a balanced diet, because child services would definitely get called if I fed my family Kraft mac and cheese every night.

The sad part is, I should go back to school this break a more healthy human being, but I won’t do it. I should vacuum my room once and a while, and actually make a list when I go food shopping, but I won’t. My diet will recede back to Tyson chicken nuggets and one of those random beers in the fridge.

So I’m going to savor all of the home-cooked meals, all of the full courses, and the actual breakfasts. I’m especially going to savor the heat turned to a reasonable temperature, instead of freezing in my desperate attempts to save money.

I’m going to savor the expensive wine that I can’t pronounce, and the sweet silence of a quiet neighborhood not filled with college kids beer bonging.

They say home is where the heart is, and I agree. Home is also where everything is much more put-together than things at school.

So here’s to the pilgrims and the Indians dedicating a day to giving thanks. And here’s to me not ruining my appetite with those damn crescent rolls.