Thanksgiving

What’s on my mind?

I remember wearing a white pilgrim cap and a paper collar in my elementary school play, making handprint turkeys with tempera paint, and bringing canned beans for the school’s Cornucopia Food Drive. After that, we drove five hours in the Dodge to my grandparents’ house in the Bay Area to celebrate Thanksgiving. Those warm traditions stopped when we moved to Pakistan, and the holiday started to look and feel different for me.

In Tarbela, people from all over the globe observed their national holidays. Christmas and Easter were common ground for many of us. The Americans and Brits celebrated the Fourth of July together in jest. On St. Patrick’s Day, wearing green to school was a smart move. But Thanksgiving was mostly overlooked, or at least I can’t remember one. And later at boarding school, it was just another meal in the dining hall.

When I started college, I realized how lonely Thanksgiving could be if you had nowhere to go. My roommates often invited me to their homes, and I was grateful to share a family table, even if it wasn’t mine.

One Thanksgiving, my mom visited from Venezuela. With the dorms empty and the cafeteria shuttered, we drove around until we found a restaurant on California Avenue serving Thanksgiving dinner. Inside, we found others in the same situation, sharing the holiday with strangers. We squeezed into two seats at the bar and toasted our unique family. It was a Thanksgiving I’ll always remember.

After I met David, he invited me to spend Thanksgiving with his big family of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. They made a wonderful feast with all the classic dishes, cooked from scratch over several days by his grandma and aunts. It felt special to be included, even if I was at the kids' table.

I’ve celebrated many Thanksgivings now and have even hosted a few myself. These days, the Cook family gets together at David’s parents’ house, and the younger generation does the cooking. There’s always laughter, good conversation, a college football game on TV, and family members joining on FaceTime if they can’t be there. Sometimes I pause to take it all in and feel thankful for the warmth and chaos of my family. Then I loosen my top button to make room for pumpkin pie.

Happy Thanksgiving to friends and family everywhere.