Thanksgiving Dinner

My favorite holiday of the year would have to be Christmas because I just love everything about it. My family getting together, the food, the gifts, and call me crazy, but I would also have to say the smell of it. I don’t know how to explain that, but I just like the scent of the Christmas tree and ornaments, But for some reason I’ve decided to write about my least favorite holiday which is Thanksgiving. The reason why I’m not into Thanksgiving is because I don’t see a point to it.
Since my family thinks the complete opposite, they still make me help out with everything and go on with whatever they have planned for the day. Thanksgiving dinner is always at my house, and my grandma is always the one making dinner. It would usually be me, my grandma, and my sister waking up in the cold early morning and head to any open grocery store to buy whatever is necessary. Then we’d get home and just start cooking. But last year it was completely different. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt’s house because she decided to plan everything. I found it kind of weird because no one else had ever made dinner but my grandma. It was around 6:30 pm when I started getting ready to go my auntie’s house. I was still trying to figure out why they didn’t want grandma to cook dinner this time. I quickly got ready, went to my auntie’s house before any one else would get there so I could ask her about it. She told me it was because she wanted to surprise her with one of my cousins, who was coming from Honduras whom my grandma hadn’t seen for 14 years and she wanted my grandma to get ready and not be so tired. I was so excited because I had never met her before, and I felt like a little kid because I had to keep the whole thing a secret which was something really hard for me to do because I was so anxious to tell everyone. When everyone started arriving, it was probably around 7:30, almost 8:00. I decided to wait outside for everyone to get there, especially my cousin, but it was just too cold outside. My fingers were so numb, they felt like icicles that were about to break. I thought it would be better if I just went inside where everyone else was. Once I stepped in I was hit with a scent that just made me forget about everything else. I got the smell of Honduran food; the mixture of tamales, menudo, baked plantains, rice, beans, mashed potatoes, macaronis, oven baked ham, and of course, freshly made turkey. And even though I hate Honduran punch, at that moment I was enjoying the smell of the cinnamon sticks, oranges and the pinch of rum it had while it was still boiling on the hot stove. We were all just sitting down in the living room when we heard a knock on the door, once I heard the second knock I felt so excited and it was really hard for me to try and stay calm but my auntie gave me a look like if she was going to kill me if I said anything, so she just opened the door and welcomed my cousin in. She was tall, very slim, and her skin was a goldish color. She had really long, curly, black hair that seemed like you could get lost in it, and her eyes were dark brown, almost black-they were so dark you could probably use them as a mirror. She was wearing a red dress that came down to her knees with black high heel shoes and a black leather jacket over her dress. It took my grandma awhile to recognize her but when she did she was happier than ever, they both hugged and started crying. Being the crybaby that I am, of course I started crying too. I think it was because I had never seen my grandma cry before and I just got emotional by looking at her cry. After the whole emotional scene was over we talked for a while and then started to eat. It was really hard for me to pick something out from the selection of food, but I got a bowl of menudo. I couldn’t wait to start eating because just looking at it made my mouth literally start to water. It was red, almost the color of blood, with strips of chicken and cow tripe and I just really couldn’t wait to start eating so I sat down, sprinkled some onion, cilantro, and tortilla chips on it and started eating. It felt so good when it was in mouth because it was so cold outside, it kind of warmed me up when I ate it. Many people would probably get grossed out at the fact that it has cow stomach but believe it or not that’s the best part. After I got done enjoying my menudo, I was as full as a tick, but I went ahead and enjoyed the rest of my thanksgiving night getting to know my cousin a little more and just being with my family. I guess from that day I learned to like Thanksgiving after all because it showed me that there is a point to it. It brought almost all my family together at least for that one night but that’s something I’m thankful for.