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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BookTenTiger" data-source="post: 9806067" data-attributes="member: 6685541">I like Thanksgiving better than Christmas, actually!When I was a kid, our Thanksgiving dinners were bland and stressful. My dad was still drinking back then and my mom's side of the family is always going through a lot and is not good at communicating affection.When I got older I decided to start reclaiming the holiday, in a number of ways.First off, as an elementary school teacher I make sure to tell my students the true story of the first Thanksgiving, as taught to me by Wompanoag educators. (I won't get into it here but if you want to know more just message me!)Then I focus on Thanksgiving as a celebration of family and gratitude. I enjoy cooking and being of service to the people I love, and Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to practice those things.I'm the primary cook in my family for Thanksgiving. I have my turkey brine recipe I love. I'm a big pie baker and each year I make different pies. I like to try out different sides, never just making the same thing every year.That said, the last few Thanksgivings have been challenging!This year my wife has been deployed through CDC to Indian Health Services in rural North Dakota. We are in Week 10 and we have 8 more weeks to go. My family is flying in, which will be nice, but being a solo dad for a 4 year old is a lot of work while preparing for Thanksgiving!Last year my wife was deployed to screen for Marburg virus at JFK airport in New York during Thanksgiving.The year before that I got the flu from my students.The year before that my wife got pink eye during the meal!We really haven't had a normal Thanksgiving in years.Here's the food I'm making this year. I'm farming out a salad, deviled eggs, and stuffing to my family.Turkey (brined and roasted)Mashed PotatoesRoasted sweet potato, butternut squash, and carrotsCranberry Sauce (canned, my family's preference)Hawaiian Rolls (my family's preference)Chess pie (one chocolate, one lemon)I like Thanksgiving way more than Christmas because it's not as consumerist. I have a lot of unhappy Christmas memories growing up. But one of my favorites was driving on Christmas Day from San Francisco to LA with my dad. Normally it's a 6 - 8 hour drive depending on traffic, but there was no one on the road and we just flew down the highway. We had dinner in a packed Jewish deli (my dad's side of the family is Jewish and I consider myself an atheist Jew).Most years we fly from Atlanta to California to celebrate Christmas with our families. The one big tradition I enjoy is having crab on Christmas Eve. My brother and I have a kind of unofficial crab eating contest, piling the shells as high as they can go.</blockquote>

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