Our intern, Melanie Saltys, a senior at Roger Williams University, weighs in on food, friends and family tradition on this Thanksgiving eve. Wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours this holiday!
Occasionally people attend two Thanksgiving dinners because of an insistent mother-in-law or an unrelenting girlfriend who asks her new guy to stop by to meet the entire family. In my case, I enjoy three Thanksgiving dinners, all by choice. Go ahead and take a minute to judge me…
For the second year in a row, all of my college friends and I created our own Thanksgiving feast. Being an upperclassman comes with its perks: bigger living areas, better equipped kitchens and the privilege to sip on some cider (the adult version, finally!). About fifteen of us gathered together late last week for the first feast of the season. Our kind hostesses were my good friends Caity and Bridget who politely asked everyone to cook (or buy) their favorite dish to share. With my green bean casserole in tow, I arrived at their warm and inviting apartment which had been decorated with everything Thanksgiving-themed you could imagine. A little squished on desk chairs and couches, we made the college-version of Thanksgiving go off without a hitch.
The next feast is all thanks to Roger Williams University which offers a Thanksgiving dinner to all students and staff members. The dining hall is packed from 5-8 p.m. with ravenous college students and enough food to feed an army. The patient dining hall staff serves up turkey, stuffed shrimp, mashed potatoes, various vegetables, cranberry sauce, rolls and the list goes on. As a senior, I never eat at the dining hall since I no longer have a meal plan but seeing everyone come together for a much appreciated feast is my favorite part of the whole event.
My third and final feast will be spent with my family. While the previous two meals are delicious and pleasant,there is no place like home. I will be spending the holiday in Connecticut with my dad’s extended family. I don’t know if it’s because this will be my 21st Thanksgiving with these people, but for some reason this holiday is so predictable. The women will be in the kitchen preparing dinner, while the mens eyes are glued to the television pretending to care about the score of the football game that their team isn’t even playing in. When my aunt proclaims the food is ready, the men will magically be seated, already serving themselves. After dinner, the women head back to the kitchen to clean up the mess and the men will resume their positions on the couch; except this time the only thing their eyes will see is the inside of their eyelids.
Gobble gobble…