one ticket for the crazy bus, please.

while waiting in the car i got overly excited about the most exciting topic to talk about...

"hey! let's talk about thanksgiving!"

...only to have my bubble bursted by (said in a 'you're crazy' tone)...

"...uhh, what about it?"

WHAT ABOUT IT? WHAT! ABOUT! IT!?--- i knew right then i was no longer in kansas. and by kansas (hi katie and nathan!) i mean illinois. it hit me hard. i am not home. i am not at a place or around people that have experienced a real thanksgiving. and by a real thanksgiving i'm talking about three day celebration full of people lining up to give you greeting hugs and hellos, lasagna on friday, capture the flag every night, carpetball during the day, real futbol on saturday afternoon followed by the reveal (and the inhalence) of the secret hiding place for the world famous "Becky's chocolate chip cookies", the best peanut butter cream pie your taste buds have every enjoyed, not to mention the worlds greatest buckeyes, and an overall great time spent with cousin's cousins. i miss those days. i miss them. i haven't been to a real thanksgiving in two years. TWO! years, people.

two. years.

even though i haven't had a true real thanksgiving in two years. i have had a real thanksgiving. and to explain a real thanksgiving i am going to use liza's explanation (because you did it so beautifully liza!)...

a real thanksgiving:

"We used to always go to Michigan for BIG extended-family fun (a.k.a. the real thanksgiving i'm talking about). But it got too complicated for various reasons and now we are in the process of figuring out what Thanksgiving will look like for us. Last year was our first "nuclear family only" ( a.k.a. the real thanksgiving i'm talking about ) Thanksgiving. Personally, I enjoyed it because it was such a unifying group effort. We had special teams: cooking team, set-up team, recreation team, and clean-up team. I made special badges for the teams (or least for the clean-up crew) and I recall a joyous scavenger hunt for prizes such as a back massage from Suzanne (and let's not forget all the egg nog and coke...mmm) . And then we all sat around and daydreamed about next year, when the baby would be with us (Suzanne and Husayn had just shared the news!)."

but even if you didn't get to experience my definition of a real or real thanksgiving how could you not like thanksgiving? Thanks. give. ing. a holiday to celebrate two of the best things in the world; family AND food. oh, boy! FAMILY AND FOOD celebrated TOGETHER ON THE SAME DAY! Could there be a better holiday!? i don't know what else to say. i mean, people, family AND food. AND food. could it get any better?

No, i think not.




and, yes, i did cry when my dad told me that my family was neither having a real or real thanksgiving this year. i mean it's just that sad.