Thanksgiving is coming up, giving students a full week off. During this time, we get to celebrate, spend time with our family and eat wonderful food. For my perfect Thanksgiving dinner, this is how it would go.
Thanksgiving really starts at 6 p.m., at least for me. Families start to pile in, people are bringing in some final groceries and various other items. People are talking to each other from across the house. Since there are a lot of people in my family, it can never be quiet in our house. I’d be helping my uncle with his family’s recipe for sweet potato pie. Personally, my favorite thing is that he cooks and he cooks a lot of other great food. The turkey and ham come steaming out of the oven. We always get them from my aunt’s favorite spot, HoneyBaked Ham. Once everything is finally prepared, the load of plates is put onto the counter and everyone gets in line. Preferably, I’m the first one in line because I’m definitely the hungriest. Honey ham, juicy turkey, collard greens, cornbread stuffing, marshmallow cinnamon yams and mac and cheese all get packed onto my plate.
At 7 p.m., everyone sits at the table and we are all ready to eat. Before we start eating, my uncle tells us we are going to play a game, Rose and Thorn. The rules are that each person goes around in a circle and says one good thing (rose) about the day and one thing that can improve (thorn). I love playing this game because it usually evolves into a bigger conversation and it helps to build connection and understanding throughout the family. After the game is finished, people finally start eating the food they’ve been picking at the whole time. People start breaking off into different conversations, my aunt is usually talking to her assistant, my younger siblings are talking among themselves, I chat with my uncle and my older sister and, of course, my baby sister watches “Danny Go!” on her iPad.
Around 8 p.m., people are getting up to get their second or even third dishes. Plates are getting put away and people are stuffed. People are starting to settle down but things are about to turn right back up when I pull out my family’s favorite board games. Monopoly is a game we’ve recently started playing ever since lockdown. Usually, only the older people play but sometimes my little sister joins in. She usually needs help because she doesn’t understand how to play, so my uncle and I take advantage of that and trick her into giving us all of her property. This is usually a very lengthy game but it’s one we enjoy every moment of.
Around 10 p.m., the game wrapped up and I won, of course. People aren’t fully ready to end the night quite yet. We all sit down on the couch and my uncle grabs the remote. He goes to Apple TV and finds a recent movie that he thinks looks good. He usually always chooses because he always picks the “best ones,” but tonight I’m picking. I put on my favorite crime movie, “War Dogs,” or something more festive like “Free Birds.” We all get comfortable and tune in to an actually good movie.
At midnight, everyone is half asleep and ready to go to bed. We all sluggishly get up from the couch, stretching and yawning. Then, we all hug each other, telling one another goodnight and that we love them. I do my nightly routine and roll into bed exhausted from the eventful day I had. My last thought before I drift into sleep is that we have delicious leftovers that I am going to eat for the rest of the week.
