Turkey and Family

As the below post suggests it’s that time of the year again. But my mind is not quite on finals yet. Maybe it should be. But it is far too preoccupied with the wonderful holiday that is barreling its way toward us. THANKSGIVING! My family loves Thanksgiving. We always say it’s the time you can concentrate of family and great food, without the stress of presentsof Christmas. While some of you might say 'I love buying gifts', in a family distributed over 5 continents it gets a bit much. We have lists of addresses that are always changing, lists of family that is always growing, lists of ages that are changing… all in all my family is just too big and far spread for presents to be an easy buy. But Thanksgiving, now that we do right!

With this wonderful week already here I am jumping from excitement about going home. And yes part of it is to get away from the cafeteria food. I mean come on! Not only do I get to eat home cooked meals, they are specialty dishes cultivated over generations that we only make at Thanksgiving. How much better does it get! And my family is at its best during this holiday. We are all ready to have fun, and are so in love with being together. As a Russian/Lithuanian/Colombian household we eat a lot, we drink a lot, and we party until dawn. This is the time when I hear stories about how all these amazing people came to America, how feuds were born and solved, and how miracles played a part in our family like no other. This is the time of year when I am so truly fully glad to come from the background I did!

This year Thanksgiving is special for a few more reasons. It’s our first without our beloved Grandma Mamute (Mamute means little mother in Lithuanian). She passed away last winter and it’s going to be a big loss at our table without her. She was the one who told my sister’s then fiancé, now husband, that we will know that he truly loves my sister when he has to change her diapers, she led the family song every year (oh yes we bust out the guitar and sing old soviet songs!), and was our own personal ray of sunshine. For me personally this Thanksgiving is also special because for the first time since I’ve moved to America in 2002 I will not be with my family for Christmas or New Years. So this holiday is my one shot at glory people!

Ok, ok enough about me. This post is supposed to be to remind you all how much we have to be Thankful for this year. Hurricane Irene didn’t destroy our College, the Snow storm of Halloween weekend didn’t dampen our spirits too much, our families are still around us, we’re almost done with another semester, and it’s late November but it’s not frigid cold outside yet! Find your own reasons to be thankful this time of year and cherish your time with the family. Finals are coming up, and as much as I don’t want to admit it we will need all the good vibes to survive those!