Thanksgiving Redemption

 Over the last year, I have had a crisis of faith in Thanksgiving. It has long been my favorite holiday. But was it still my favorite? 

I mean, the First Thanksgiving was nothing of the sort; Pilgrims and Indians are often portrayed inaccurately (and sometimes problematically); most leaves have lost their color by the time Thanksgiving arrives; Thanksgiving turkeys are irrelevant to vegetarians; many Thanksgiving foods are also served at other holidays; we should live in thanksgiving daily (Alma 34:38), not just once a year. And since Christmas always intrudes into Thanksgiving's territory, I worried it was dying.

But after making it through another Thanksgiving season, I think it deserves a spot as my favorite. And I don't think it's going to die. A lot of food companies did special things for Thanksgiving. And I think it is a major victory that Target reversed course and is now going to be closed on Thanksgiving. Phew!

I did have an enjoyable Thanksgiving week. It would have been better if I didn't have grad school constantly looming over me, but next Thanksgiving I will be done! (To be fair, I will probably miss these days when I have mornings free.)

On Monday morning, I went to Five Below to pick up the scarecrow and pumpkin Squishmallows my niece had set aside for me (she works there). We didn't have my evening class that day. For our research papers, we meet with other classmates, so I met with them to discuss our first drafts for a couple of hours on Zoom. (They were annoyed with me that my first draft was mostly complete; they have more work to do still.) Then I was free to go on a run. I went trail running every day this week (except Sunday)! This year, they have been building a new Bonneville Shoreline Trail, so I decided to see the new portions near the Summerwood neighborhood in Bountiful. I ran five miles and didn't see the end.

A few months ago, I donated to a Kickstarter for Brownies! Brownies! Brownies! in Sugar House, which entitled me to "free" brownies and a t-shirt, but I had to get the shirt before Thanksgiving, so I went and got it Monday evening. But none of this week's flavors interested me, so I'll have to get the brownies another time.

On Tuesday, I attended class as usual. For the bus ride home, the marquee on the front of the bus wasn't working. There was a speaker outside that said, "4 5 5," but it's a little hard to understand, so when I got on, I said, "This is 455, right?" The driver said, "Yes, like it said outside." I told him, "The sign isn't working." And he angrily responded, "I know!" If he hadn't said "like it said outside," I wouldn't have told him the sign was working. And then at every stop, people would ask what bus it was, and he was irrationally angry that people didn't hear the sign. Once he started going off about how "people are ignoring the speaker today." I could hear him muttering to himself. And if anyone else told him the sign wasn't working, he snapped "I know!" just like he did to me. Sheesh! What's his problem? When I get off the bus, I always say "thank you" to the driver, and this time I was sure to add a "have a nice day" to my farewell. (I thought it would make things worse if I said "I hope your day gets better.")

That evening I only had time to go to the Woodbriar Trail.

Then on Wednesday, I actually had class. During all my schooling, public school and undergrad, I have never had class on the day before Thanksgiving. What's up with that, University of Utah?! But it was on Zoom, since people were traveling. So in the morning before class, I headed to Trader Joe's to buy a few things (see pumpkinundation roundup below). It was busy, but not as much as I expected; I've seen them busier on ordinary days. Then I went home for class. And after class, I was able to run up my very favorite, North Canyon. There were flurries half the time I was running, so I was glad I was wearing a jacket and thick gloves. There was just something so magical about running in the snow in the twilight on the day before Thanksgiving. Last year, I went up North Canyon the afternoon before Thanksgiving, and it was quite busy, even though there was a lot of snow on the ground up the canyon. This time, it was mostly deserted. Maybe because the day was colder this year?

Then I came home and began preparing my portion of food for Thanksgiving. I was only assigned to make cranberry sauce, but I opted to make other foods as well.

On Thanksgiving morning, I only had time for a Wild Rose run. 

Then I had to head home to finish cooking, and I also had to pick up the cooked turkeys from my grandparents. I made six things for Thanksgiving: cranberry sauce, spiced apple cider (well, I spiced it, but I didn't make the cider itself), green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, Dixie salad (which is a traditional St. George Thanksgiving fruit salad I wanted to try), and ice cream. Green bean casserole seems like it should be cheap and gross, but I really have come to love it! (My family didn't always have it.) My mom helped me with the hardest parts of preparing these foods: peeling sweet potatoes and removing pomegranate seeds.

I cooked apples in cinnamon, butter, and brown sugar before I added them to the ice cream. And I also added cranberry sauce to the second batch, but I was a little too timid.

My mom's family all came over for the big meal.

Then that evening, after the family left and the dishes were cleaned (in that order), I watched The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't and Squanto: A Warrior's Tale, two very different takes on the traditional "First Thanksgiving" story. The first one is a kitschy cartoon that is so much fun to watch, despite the historical inaccuracies (and it never tried to be accurate). The second one is one I hadn't seen before. It still had too many liberties and inaccuracies for me to fully endorse it, but I do have to say the story of Squanto is far more interesting than the story of the Mayflower.

I'm not convinced we should throw out the Pilgrims and Indians, in part because there can be value in that story, and I am comfortable with a nuanced understanding—but I would be fine if it just gradually faded out. For example, I recently watched An Arthur Thanksgiving from 2020, and it made zero references to Pilgrims.

Then on Friday, I took down Thanksgiving decorations and started on Christmas. I also went back to the new Bonneville Shoreline Trail where I had been on Monday, but this time I followed it until its end (about 3.7 miles one way). It appears that it will meet up with North Canyon when they are done building it.

My mom hung up a ceramic decoration that is Santa's face. At 6:00 on Saturday morning, I awoke to a crashing sound, so I went to see what it was. The Santa face had fallen off the wall and shattered, and Santa's eye was looking at me.

"He sees you when you're sleeping."

Then on Saturday, I worked on some homework before I went up North Canyon again. Nothing too interesting this time, but it does bring me so much joy that I am physically and locationally able to go up there so often.

Then today, we headed up near Pocatello, Idaho, to hear my first-cousin-once-removed give her homecoming talk. Today is the fourteenth anniversary of when I entered the MTC, so I tend to think of missions and homecomings at this time of year. 

So I still really enjoy Thanksgiving. Even the less positive things, like working hard in the kitchen and family drama, add character to the day. But I'm not sad it's over, because that means it's Christmastime. And here's a question I have: do I really need a favorite holiday? Since they are my entire life, I don't know that I need to pick one that I like best.

***

Now that Thanksgiving is in our rearview mirror, it's the final installment of pumpkinundation roundup. Sad day! 

I first tried this Trader Joe's Everything but the Leftovers Seasoning Blend on plain popcorn, per the recommendation on the bottle. The seasoning got up in my nose and made me cough, like pepper. So I can't recommend it on popcorn. But! I put this stuffing-flavored stuff on bland foods like mashed potatoes and cooked onions, and I loved it! I don't necessarily look forward to eating those foods, but this time I did. 8/10.

Pecan pie is a popular flavor these days, but often that's just pecan, not pecan pie. Not so with the Dairy Queen Pecan Pie Blizzard, which actually had squishy bits in it to represent the syrupy part of pecan pie. I hope they bring this one back! 8/10.

That's one of the squishy pieces, not a nut.

I went to Spanky's, a Bountiful standby, to get the Spanky's Turkey Cranberry Sandwich, but I had to ask if they had it, because it wasn't on any menu or sign. It was good; it was fine. Just what you'd expect. 7/10.

Since I now consider apple pie to also be a Fourth of July dessert, I have had these Apple Pie Larabars in my cupboard since the summer, but I forgot to put them on here until this week. They're fine; Larabars aren't the best things to begin with. 6/10.

Pearson's Pumpkin Spice Salted Nut Roll has a kind of artificial flavor to it. I think most of the flavoring is in the nougat/caramel/whatever beneath the peanuts. 6/10.

I really enjoyed the Millie's Pumpkin Brownie Shake (in Sugar House). The brownie bits added some needed textural contrast to the good but typical pumpkin shake. 8/10.

Good & Gather Apple Pie Date & Nut Bars are Target's version of Larabars. They're a little drier than Larabars, but I don't think they're worse for it. 6/10.

I am so excited to see Thanksgiving foods get attention, so I had to try Trader Joe's Green Bean Casserole Bites. They aren't as good as real green bean casserole; they tasted much more mushroomy. 6/10.

I'm picky when it comes to cheese, so I didn't know what to expect from Trader Joe's Camembert Cheese and Cranberry Sauce Fillo Bites. But they were better than I expected! The cheese wasn't gross, and I enjoyed the cranberry element. 7/10.

I was most excited for Trader Joe's Turkey Sausage Stuffing Fried Rice. I love fried rice, but a holiday-themed fried rice? Amazing! It really does taste like stuffing. 9/10.

[post edited because I forgot something] On the day after Thanksgiving, I finally used my Diamond Pumpkin Pie Spice Nut Pie Crust. It has spices and is made with walnuts and almonds.

I used it for a spaghetti squash pie. It has nice spices, but there is a prominent walnut flavor, and I think walnuts are the grossest nut. The pie was very liquidy, which made the crust very soft and moist, but I wouldn't say it's soggy. 6/10 for the crust, 7/10 for the spaghetti squash pie.

See you here again in September!