Thanksgiving kick off the start of the holiday season! Although all the chains of grocery stores, pharmacies, and shopping malls are already filled with Christmas decorations a week before Halloween, Thanksgiving can not be skipped.
So, you ask why is it the best? Well here are some reasons that make the pant-unbuttoning, face-stuffing holiday number one:
1. FIRST and foremost family time.
Possibly for the first time in months or several weeks you are reunited with your siblings, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. I don’t know about anyone else, but I cannot wait to be in the same house as my parents and brother for the first time since August.
2. The appreciation that comes with Thanksgiving.
Giving thanks without gifts, but instead giving thanks for the presents provided by everyone you are with. Every year at Thanksgiving as we are all drooling over what is in front of us, ready to dig into the warm, buttery filled rolls, decadent turkey, perfectly cooked stuffing, and delicious gravy, we stop. We stop and go around the table to say what we are thankful for. Of course we start off with some humor “our devastatingly good looks” and “my one of a kind personality” are always common ones, but then we genuinely appreciate we have. Health, a meal on the table, each other, love, happiness, laughter, memories are all things we get to hold with us everyday, and those are not things that shall be taken for granted.
3. Everyone comes home from college
All your high school friends come home for the first time since summer and you get to catch up on all the hometown gossip, high school drama, and who has changed the most.
4. Attending the annual high school rival Thanksgiving day football game.
Which you’re most likely hungover at due to the late night at the local bar with everyone you missed or those you never thought you’d see again or at least hoped not to.
5. The joy of Yankee Candle fall scents infuse your home.
From the smell of fall leaves, cinnamon, pumpkin, apple, and all the great spices in between. They smell so good you can almost taste them.
6. There’s a football game on a weekday on TV …during the day.
And if you’re not a fan of football there’s always picking out your favorite float while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But let’s face it, the guys of the family aren’t changing it to the parade and it is November - Football will win.
7. The post-feast nap.
And especially the part just before you decide to nap when your parents or other relatives give you the okay to switch into sweatpants or leggings. BUT WAIT! Not before we get a picture of the “kids” first.
8. The touch football game.
Just after your post-feast nap and right before desserts. Hopefully for other people this game takes place in a big open backyard. My family does it in a street and plays with “no rules.”
