Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  Partly, it’s because this is the the last holiday that the whole family usually all gets together in one place.  Partly, it’s because my (favorite) aunt makes an unbelievable Thanksgiving spread.

Mostly, though, it’s because Thanksgiving, to me, has always been the most welcoming of holidays.  Our family casts a wide net.  Friends with no family, come on over.  Friends who can’t make it out of town to be with family, come on over.  Friends who’d rather not be with their family, come on over.  I get to see familiar faces that I really only see on Thanksgiving.  I get to see faces that I may never see again.  It is a time of eating and drinking and talking in a safe, cozy, relaxed, crazy atmosphere.  It is a time of love.

And at the end of the day, when people are starting to head home and I’m drinking my last B&B (nectar of the gods) and my cousins’ friends start showing up to pay homage to their foster family, I can’t help but smile.  There is not a day that goes by that I don’t feel incredibly lucky, but on Thanksgiving, I feel luckiest.