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.