Both grandmas made an amazing spread, and my Thanksgiving lunch and dinner were over the top . It's one of those very awkward American traditions to get together and eat too much, when I doubt the first Thanksgiving was anything like the warm gluttony that most indulged in yesterday. Rather-perhaps it was based more around survival and just the satisfaction of living. My brother in law brought up a great point yesterday in the lounge-time that followed one of our meals. He said, "We should probably switch to a skinny Santa to send a healthier message to the kids." I had never really thought about this. Should Santa Claus be skinny? Are the national trends of obesity due to a few bad example setters? Perhaps too then the center of the Thanksgiving holiday should be giving, and physical acts of charity, rather than just having a big meal with the family? This could really change somethings, if rather than going all out with the Turkey with all the fixin's we did nothing but community service, and charitable projects on Thanksgiving. How does eating food 'give thanks'? Usually giving thanks consists of some act of giving time, money, or just thought-Not mass consumption.

I missed a lot of my family members this thanksgiving. Perhaps my parents made a mistake raising my siblings and I too close to our cousins who now are scattered throughout the country. It actually took some time before i realized how fortunate I was to have all of my siblings, and my new nephew-who is now a butterball himself-all together eating food. We all live in different cities and have jobs and crazy lives. I am no doubt thankful for the time we spent together, and now am looking forward to the travels that I have coming in the near future.