Complaint: Turkey Day, My Ass

This is a cynical post.

If you’re feeling all warm and fuzzy, watch ABC Family.

I’m just not really understanding the hoopla over Thanksgiving.

In Canada, it’s no big deal. And there’s not all this folklore associated with it. It’s harvest time, so we eat turkey. We get Monday off. No big thing.

But here, yikes, it’s this BIG thing. People decorate their houses, FFS. I’m not a fan of over-hyped holidays, because they tend to leave you disappointed. When expectations are high, it tends to make the actual event less than satisfying.

I say, lower the bar.

We’ve got to stop hyping this holiday. I mean, do my kids really need to make pilgrim hats and turkey collages? The whole myth that everything was hunky dory between the Native Americans and the Pilgrims also irks me. Maybe it was a nice dinner, maybe somebody even told jokes, but it couldn’t have been all that we have made it up to be here in the US. It just didn’t end well for half the dinner guests.

I like the idea of giving thanks. That’s awesome. We should do that more frequently, My homey who wrote the Happier book says that being grateful for things truly does make you happy. And I’ve heard that other places, too. It makes sense. It’s easy to see the glass half empty; it can take an effort to see the glass half full. (especially when the darkness of this new climate is totally kicking my ass)

We were supposed to go to a major fancy dinner at my husband’s boss’s house today. But both children are sporting contagious and visually disturbing conditions that have made that plan obsolete.

So my husband, ever the multi-tasking super hero, went to the store LAST NIGHT, and bought the fixings for a very basic, mostly pre-packaged thanksgiving meal at home.

We are still going to eat turkey, and stuffing, and cranberry sauce. We are going to be glad that we are together. But we aren’t going to make a big deal out of it.

And I’m thankful for that.







Now wait a minute; I thought this was supposed to be cynical. Damn. Happy Turkey Day!