This has become a complicated holiday for a large portion of USAn citizens. You spend your life learning that the Pilgrims and the native peoples celebrated the first harvest in the Pilgrims’ New World and then you find out that basically, the indigenous peoples mark this as the start of the genocide of their people. Which it is. So what’s a guy who’s 55 years old and has been having family meals on this day his whole life to do?

He realizes it was always more about being with family and being grateful we made it through another year. And eating turkey. I know there’s a divide, but I am on the pro-turkey side. My immediate family (dad, mom, sister) was not the kind who was in constant contact with aunts, uncles, and grandparents. So a day where they all came over and we had some good food and fun was a celebration.

So many years ago when the actual history and chain of events got through my thick skull, I realized I was never really celebrating that first “Thanksgiving” anyway. I was hanging with cousins, joking with aunts and uncles. So that’s what I celebrate on the 4th Thursday of November. And before climate change screwed everything up, maybe I was enjoying the last few nice days before temperatures plummeted.

I know having a celebration on this day isn’t the greatest look, but I probably won’t ever give it up. On the bright side, I may have raised my kids to not really care about the 4th Thursday in November as different than any other day, and I really just want them to be better than me.

Tagged: family, Thanksgiving