Not just thankful for Christmas

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Macy McClish

Fall colors in full bloom.

We sit around a table covered in multiple delicious dishes made by my grandmother’s loving hand. My cousins are restless in their seats, eager to taste everything set in front of them. I sit between my grandparents just like I have since I was three. I take both of their hands as my grandfather leads us in prayer to bless the food. After a chorus of ‘amen,’ we start to eat. I look to the living room and notice an ornament on the ground. I get up to put it back on its evergreen branch. After fixing a light or two, I rejoin my family in our Thanksgiving feast.

In my family, we have certain ways of celebrating the holidays. My family is spread out between Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma. It tends to make traveling for the holidays difficult. Over the years, with a lot of trial and error, we have managed to create a solution.

Every year, we celebrate Thanksgiving with just one side of my family. My mom and dad’s side of the family alternate each year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Whoever doesn’t come for Thanksgiving comes for Christmas and vice versa.  

As most people know, I am all about Christmas. Whether it’s decorations, food or music, there is nothing to stop my enthusiasm.

— Macy McClish

Whichever side comes for Thanksgiving, we knock out two birds with one stone and have Christmas the next day, so those who live down in Austin and out in Colorado don’t have to make the eight-hour trip twice in two months. It usually makes for a nice food coma that following Saturday.

With our early Christmas comes early decorating. As most people know, I am all about Christmas. Whether it’s decorations, food or music, there is nothing to stop my enthusiasm. But what people don’t know it is necessary for me to decorate early because of our early celebration. They assume that I am a Thanksgiving-hating, Christmas lunatic.

I am not a Thanksgiving hater. I love Thanksgiving. In my opinion, we are not thankful enough for what we are blessed with. Our food, houses, education, technology, friends and family are just a few of the many, many things we are lucky to have in our lives. Thanksgiving is a day to really appreciate what we have. We should be thankful every day of the year, but one day is better than none.