Thanksgiving, observed

I'm not sure how it began, but over the past few years my family has developed a tradition of moving the traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  I think it sprung originally from my brother's angst at trying to find a way to make it to two Thanksgiving dinners on the same day - one at our mom's house, and the other with his fiance's family - but honestly, I can't remember.  It's possible that I just couldn't deal with the thought of battling holiday traffic on the NJ Turnpike and demanded we rearrange the calendar.  

I know that a lot of people would have trouble celebrating Thanksgiving on any date other than the "real" one, but I think moving the holidays is a stroke of sheer genius.  There's no seven-hour backup at the Delaware bridge toll.  There are no hurt feelings over missed holiday visits. And I get to celebrate the holidays with my family AND spend the long holiday weekends at home with my Tivo.

The first instance I can remember of us moving a holiday to suit our needs was Christmas of 2001.  I'd just returned from my semester abroad in Spain and my mom had booked us a family vacation to Hawaii.  The only catch: we were flying on Christmas Day.   Now, it's pretty hard to be upset about going to Hawaii in December, but we all felt a little bit sad about "missing" Christmas while we were stuck on a 12-hour flight.  That is, until my mom declared that we wouldn't be missing Christmas after all - we'd just be celebrating it a day late, on December 26th.  In  Honolulu.  

That was an emergency solution, but it's worked out so well that we've now started scheduling our own dates for Thanksgiving and Christmas whether there's a conflict or not.   We usually keep it pretty close to the real holiday (except for the time my mom moved her birthday from February to June so we could go hiking in Mohonk for her "birthday").  This year, the weekend before Thanksgiving seemed like a logical date to hold our own personal Turkey Day... until I remembered that, uh, I sort of already had plans on November 21st.   So... Thanksgiving is tomorrow for the OPH clan!   I've spent the week baking pies, and tomorrow we'll make what will hopefully be a short and traffic-free drive to my brother's house in NJ for a true holiday feast.   I can't wait.   At best, the holiday lovers among us get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice.  And at worst, those of us who are lacking a bit in the holiday spirit department will get to enjoy a four-day weekend at the end of November at home with nothing to do but watch an ungodly amount of television.  Win-win, if you ask me.

Comments

[Jemima]

Dude, your family is crazypants. But perhaps still smarter than mine, since we are expected to go to two and even three Christmas dinners, galloping from one end of the state to the other. Sooo not fun, especially with my brother-in-law's twin nephews sacking the house like screaming Huns. I vetoed his family Thanksgiving about 10 years ago and have had Orphan Thanksgiving with my friends. One of my besties flies out here every year now, this will be the third time; and we shop (I only like shopping with her) and eat out everywhere and go to Sonoma. And this year, I've also vetoed Christmas at home. Hallelujah, Tahoe here I come. Maybe I'll be depressed not to see my dad, but I kinda doubt it.

[heidi]

Dude that's awesome. Seriously. My mother stopped celebrating all holidays because my brother, sister and i were always somewhere else.

I need to suggest this, because seriously traveling to effing CT or VT for thanksgiving is so effing expensive it's not even worth it for three days.

[Courtney]

My family often does a late Christmas. At least every other year because I have to spend that year doing Christmas Day at my in-laws. We did Christmas in January two years ago!

[rialeilani]

we flew out christmas eve last year and spent christmas day in kauai! i wish we could do it again this year :)

[Amanda]

I just found an old LP of my mother's that's 25 of the World's Favorite Melodies -- "Claire de Lune" from Debussy is on there. EEEdddwwwaaarrrddddd!

That's all I wanted to say, haha! You're one of the only other people, that I personally know or "know" online, that is obsessed with the Twilight series as much as I am!

[Cheryl]

My family is like this, too. Our Thanksgiving Day is on whatever day the Egg Bowl is on, so it's ranged from actual Turkey Day to the Friday or Saturday after.

[heidikins]

I totally have 4 Thanksgivings scheduled for this year, starting this week, ending never (ok, day after the actual event)....one with Mom's fam, one with Dad's fam, one with The Boy's fam and one with my friends. Sigh...that's a LOT of turkey!

xox

[Lindsey]

How do you think Jesus feels about you just going and changing his BIRTHDAY??? LOL Just kidding. I think your holiday scheduling is brilliant!! Edgar and I will do our own personal Christmas, but I'll be at my parents on the actual day--he can't take the time off of work and it would break my heart if I wasn't with my fam.

[Julie]

This is SHEER GENIUS.
Now all I need to do is get Tim's family on board... because my mom would freak out if we changed the holidays.