“Kevin and Brian let’s go! We are gonna be late!” Mom screams from downstairs. As Dad tightens my tie, he adds, “We better hurry Brian.” After leaving the room, I loosened my tie slightly. Hurriedly, I hopped down the stairs and raced to the garage. This year I was eager to get to Auntie’s. Every Thanksgiving, I am always stuck with the little kids at their table while the adults and older kids eat a feast. A few years ago, this would be okay because I had plenty of relatives my age to interact with. In the past, we had fun eating, talking even playing games at times. But, the past few years have been pretty hard. Slowly, more and more of the cousins I knew left to join the adults at their table. It started with my sister Jill who was significantly …show more content…
older than me. Behind her, my cousins Kyle and Caitie left. Then, my cousin Megan, who was born three years before me. Last year, my cousin Brendan was told he can sit with the older kids. He was so excited and wasted no time to get over there. In the wake of all my cousins, followed toddlers and kindergarteners who barely knew how to spell. Unlike my sisters, I did not enjoy the company of my younger cousins. I found them annoying whereas my sisters found them to be cute and fun. Finally, this year would be different. Since Brendan is one year older than me, it was my year as I am finally 13. I was very eager to get to Auntie’s. Quickly, I crawled into the backseat of the van as we pulled out of the driveway. I never liked being in the backseat because it was always so cramped and tight. Also, I had to sit next to my little sister Maddie. Although she isn’t always, Maddie is nasty in the morning. Not a word could be uttered in her direction without a devilish glare in return. You couldn’t do anything to avoid this. If you breathed too loud, you would receive the look. The risk of getting the glare today was especially high. Maddie is extra cranky today because we all had to wake up early to prepare for the hour long drive. In the seat in front of me, my twin sister, Samantha and my older sister Jill sat giggling. Even though she is the younger twin, Sam always takes the front seat. Mom always claims it is because she is taller but, I know that’s not the reason. The real reason is that Maddie and Sam do not get along whatsoever. Adding Sam to the equation of Maddie’s bad mood would be like pouring gasoline on an already raging fire. Either way, I will sit up there one day. My doctor says that I am not even close to fully grown. One day, I will grow to be much taller than Sam. Not only will this help with how comfortable I am on long car rides, but I also won’t be teased about being shorter than my sister. Within five minutes of the ride, Sam and Maddie had already picked a fight. From what I could tell, Maddie was kicking the back of Sam’s seat. Whether Maddie meant to or not, this prompted Sam to slam her seat back into Maddie’s legs. The slam of the seat going back was followed by a “STOP!” screamed Madison. Through all the yelling from my parents and my two younger sisters, Jill and I tried to stay away as much as possible. After the screams subsided, we were given an update. “We will be arriving at Auntie’s soon, if you want to play that stupid game go ahead.” said Mom while she was reading her book. The game she is mentioning is the game we play every time we go to Auntie Lou’s. By Auntie’s house, the Arlington, MA water tower can be seen from miles away. The stone tower isn’t much taller than it is wide but, still manages to be about 100 feet and tower over the trees nearby. For the game, the first one to see the water tower wins. From the highway, you can just barely see the top of the tower. Without paying attention, you’d miss it. For the most part, this game lightens the mood between the kids as it can become a little tense in the car. Today, we needed relief badly. Eventually, my oldest sister Jill spotted the tower behind some trees. This was surprising because usually Maddie wins. Jill is seven years older than Sam and I, and nine years older than Maddie. Due to her age, she has always been much taller than us. We think this is what gives her the advantage when we play this game. She is easily able to see over the front seats and see the tower. Despite losing the highly competitive game, everyone was happy because we were right around the corner from Auntie’s. Everyone was very eager to arrive. This morning, no food was eaten to save up for our grand Thanksgiving meal. “Remember to use your manners guys. Mary Lou is probably very tired from preparing all this food.” states my Dad while concentrating on the road. As we pull into the driveway, Sam and I rip off our seatbelts and get ready to jump out. Auntie’s house is a very old-fashioned house. Besides when she went to college, Auntie has lived at this house her entire life. After my grandparents were done with it, they sold it to Auntie for a cheap price. Now, it is the venue of all family activities. For the most part, the house is white. The white is complemented nicely with a navy blue door and shutters. On the left side of the house, there is a large brick wall. This wall is where the house shows its real age. Despite the erosion, the brick wall is a good add to the quaint home. As we walk in to Auntie’s old-fashioned house, we were greeted by a lot of people.
Many of them were in the dining room. After walking down the long wooden hallway, we saw even more people. After giving out about 100 hugs, we were able to relax. Out of all the hugs, the strongest was from my aunt, Aunt Michelle. Unlike all of our other relatives, we rarely see our Aunt Michelle and her family. Aunt Michelle, Uncle Kevin and their kids Kevin Jr. and Kyle are rarely seen at family gatherings. Luckily for me, the only other time we see them is Easter. Although it may seem bad, I am scared of my cousin Kevin. Kevin whom wants to be a Navy Seal, is not the nicest kid in my eyes. Also, he’s very tall and strong. Over the years, I have heard stories of his reputation in his hometown. In one story, he got into a fight with a kid at one of the school football games. In this fight, he punched the kid so hard in the head, he almost died. Apparently, if it wasn’t for the army and military camps he was taking part in, he would’ve been arrested for attempted murder. Although he doesn’t always do it, he likes to pick on me during our family gatherings. He does this because he thinks it is funny but, I sometimes don’t find it that funny. Usually, I try to stay away from him as long as possible. This was hard today because we had to wait until the turkey and the other food were ready. Before we can sit down, Auntie made time to greet us. She quickly hugged us because she had to get back to work. …show more content…
From what my mom told me, she had been cooking almost all day for this feast. Although that seems rough, Auntie seems to enjoy it. After retiring a couple years back, Auntie has found a hobby in cooking. One of the many things she likes about Thanksgiving isn’t the food but, preparing it. As we were settling in, Sam and I realized we couldn’t find any of our cousins. After peeking into all the rooms on the ground floor, our cousin Kelly realized what we were doing. “All of them are upstairs.” said Kelly. After thanking Kelly, we hurried to the front of the house where the stairs were located. As we turned the corner into the dining room, we saw the beautiful dining setup that was placed. A white tablecloth covered the long table that took up the entire room. After sliding between the mahogany table and the brick wall, we arrived at the stairs and hurried up them. To pass the time, my older cousins and I would play card games. Being on the younger side, I did not understand or know how to play many of the games. The extent of my knowledge was how to play simple games like War, Go Fish and Snap. Eventually, I learned how to play more difficult games by watching the older ones play. My favorite of the games I learned was Kemps. Kemps was a card game with partners. To play, every player had four cards. Within the circle formed by the players, there was four cards lying face up. To win, you must have four cards and your partner must call “Kemps”. But, there is a catch. For your partner to call Kemps, you must signal them. If another player sees this signal, they can call “Stop Kemps”. If “Stop Kemps” is called when you have four of a kind, you get a letter. If another team call “Kemps”, you also get a letter. When a team gets a K, E, M, P and an S, you are eliminated. The reason I liked Kemps was because my cousin Megan and I were very good. The strategy we had was very simple. Instead of both of us trying to get four of a kind, only she would. While she was doing this, I would count and see what cards the other players picked up. Sometimes, this strategy would usually go unnoticed, but I did get into a few arguments with siblings when I was caught. They found it unfair that I basically knew exactly what cards were in their hands. With this knowledge, I would call “Stop Kemps” often. Eventually, we would win nearly every time. During one of these intense games, we heard Auntie yell, “It’s ready!” When we heard this, everyone rushed to the kitchen. There we found Auntie directing everyone to help. “Kevin and Kyle please help me move all the food over here. Megan, help Janice pour the drinks.” In the midst of all the madness, Brendan, Sam and I decided to see if Auntie needed any help. “Auntie what should we do?” Sam said to Auntie as she walked by. “Can you guys please help set up the tables.” she said softly before rushing off. When Sam and I heard this, we did our best to make the layout of the tables as neat and as fast as humanly possible. We thought that the better we did this, the better chance of sitting with our the grownups. Hurriedly, Sam placed the napkins and spoons while I did the forks and knives. Within a few minutes, we had finished our duty. Now, it was time to wait and see if the adults would remember us. The next few minutes were pretty tense. Anxiously, Sam and I waited for everyone to get ready and take their seats. We watched as the conversations subsided and everyone took their seats one at a time. It seemed as if it took forever. Every second felt like minutes and every minute felt like hours. Slowly, time ticked by as Sam and I looked for Mom or Dad to make a move. As we waited, we attempted to make conversations with everyone who walked by. Our reasoning behind this was simple: the more people who we spoke with, the more people would realize we are around and waiting. During one of these conversations, Sam and I sat down to speak with Megan. Like us, Megan played soccer. This led to many conversations about games and tournaments. Before we could finish our talk about Megan’s state tournament, our cousins Brendan and Kevin interrupted us. “Hey you guys shouldn’t be up here yet.” Kevin said leaning over Sam and I. Then, Brendan responded with, “Guys we need our seats for dinner.” Without hesitation or confrontation, Sam and I left our older cousins’ seats and reluctantly continued to our own seats in the other room. Not long after, everyone was ready for dinner. Although it wasn't set in stone, our confidence was diminished. It looked like it was one more year until we would get up there. Sam and I were miserable.
Sad that we were forgotten, we were barely hungry anymore. When the kids went up for food, we stayed behind. From across the hall, I could see our relatives having a great time gathering their food. Then, something was blocking my view. When I looked up at the face of the figure, I realized it was my Dad coming this way! Quickly, I looked over to Sam who saw the same thing I did. We waited while he slowly made his way down the hallway. By the time he made it, he knew we saw him. Just before the door frame, he stopped and waved for us to come towards him. On our hurried way out of the room, I glanced over at Maddie. She saw us leave and didn’t seem to care all that much. Although Maddie likes our older cousins, she has much more fun with the younger ones. For some reason kids love Maddie. Instead of caring about what Sam and I were up to, she turned her attention to the children whom loved her attention. When Sam and I arrived at our father, he waited to speak so we could catch our breath. “You guys want to sit with your cousins right?” Without hesitation, we nodded in agreement. “Well I guess you can…” Before he could finish, we sped up the hallway. Before sitting down, we decided to get our food first. I made sure to grab a lot of turkey but, to also take sides I will eat. I didn’t want to throw away half a plate of stuffing and cranberry sauce. With a plate full of turkey and vegetables, Sam and I pulled up a couple chairs on the far end of the table.
When we sat down, we were greeted by everyone. Despite my high expectations, the dinner was just as good as I thought it would be. Instead of awkward silences broken up by crying and whining, my Thanksgiving dinner was full of pleasant conversations with my close family. The conversations ranged from a variety of topics and ideas. Most of which, Sam and I knew about and could add to the discussion. After about 30 minutes, the dinner was wrapping up and I was
Stackhouse 1 Stackhouse 2 Cole Stackhouse Hensley Honors English/ Fourth Period 27 January 2016 Three Thanksgivings When the short story Three Thanksgivings begins, Mrs. Delia Morrison, a fifty year old widowed woman, finishes reading two letters. One of the letters is from her son Andrew, and the other from her daughter Jean, both inviting her to have Thanksgiving dinner with her. Along with this request, they mention her selling her house, however, each child has different ideas for where the money will go.
Susie’s mother opened the door to let Molly, Susie’s babysitter, inside. Ten-month old Susie seemed happy to see Molly. Susie then observed her mother put her jacket on and Susie’s face turned from smiling to sad as she realized that her mother was going out. Molly had sat for Susie many times in the past month, and Susie had never reacted like this before. When Susie’s mother returned home, the sitter told her that Susie had cried until she knew that her mother had left and then they had a nice time playing with toys until she heard her mother’s key in the door. Then Susie began crying once again.
This is a disgrace! To all the turkey’s at Thanksgiving! forty-five million turkey’s are cooked a year. Not only are those awful humans eating us, now they are entrapping us in disgusting cages and making us eat only corn and soybeans. That’s not even the worst part, they put something in our food called vitamins and minerals. I heard yesterday from keith, my turkey friend, that they talk about how they feed turkeys healthy things so that the people who buy the turkeys won’t get sick or something like that. They also say we taste different at different ages.
Thanksgiving Compare and Contrast Food, Family, and Fun!! Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the United States, always celebrated on a Thursday in November. There are many different ways people celebrate Thanksgiving. You give thanks and celebrate what you are most thankful for. Thanksgiving is a national holiday that has many different traditions, activities, and foods in different families.
While this invitation produced anxiety for every person that attended this meal, the toll that it took on my nephew was rather difficult to watch. His father chose to attend the day before Thanksgiving; but a half-hour before the scheduled 2 p.m. time for dinner, he let his son know that his girlfriend and her children had decided to come as well. While the adults scrambled to add additional seating, my nephew excitedly stood outside on the porch anticipating his guests’ arrival. An hour later, this little boy dejectedly wondered whether his father had changed his mind. When his guests finally arrived, we all ate an awkward, cold dinner, and my ex-brother-in-law whisked them all (including my nephew) away to his family’s Thanksgiving meal, which meant that my disappointed nephew never got to share the chocolate pie that he had helped make.
Thanksgiving is a holiday in the United States, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November every year. Although the way holidays are celebrated over time, thanksgiving has always been a holiday feast. However, Thanksgiving is more than just eating food together with your family. For instance, some families do charity work for the poor people and create a Thanksgiving dinner for them, other family’s watch sport in addition to the food that they eat together. One part that is common at almost every Thanksgiving dinner is the type of food that is served. Families in the United States have celebrated Thanksgiving for hundreds of years, but the way it is celebrated has slightly changed from the first Thanksgiving. To be able to explain
The purpose of Thanksgiving in Canada is different from the Americans. But even though the reasons for giving thanks are different, many of the customs are the same. Canadian Thanksgiving was originally started to give thanks to God for a bountiful harvest. This was when there were lots of farmers that grew crops. Now we give thanks for everything we appreciate. Some farming families still give thanks for a good crop.
Once they were back home, they sat at the dining table and started to eat the food. After 30 minutes her Aunt called and asked her to bring over some food. When she walked over to her Aunt’s place the air was colder, but still fresh and crispy. Once she was inside her Aunt’s place she sat down at the kitchen table and said hello to her cousins and Aunt. After grabbing a glass of water from her Aunt’s refrigerator her Aunt asked her to take care of her cousins while they went out to pick up food. She gladly said yes, even though she didn’t want to, but she knew she couldn’t complain and say no. After 10 minutes her Aunt and Uncle left to pick up the food from Boston Market and she was left alone with her cousins. When her Aunt and Uncle came back they started to cook and the house was filled with the smell of turkey, ham, pumpkin and apple pie and mash potatoes with gravy. At 4:00 pm her family came over to her Aunt's place and said hello and sat down at the dining table and waited for the food to be finished cooking. Once the food was ready they all sat down and said thank you to her Aunt and Uncle for cooking the food and talked with each other while they all ate the creamy warm mash potatoes with gravy and the warm and juicy ham and turkey. After everyone finished the food they all enjoyed the sweet and creamy pumpkin and apple pie. After finishing the dinner, everyone said goodbye
My uncle in his late 20’s had his first child my older cousin Sharmaine. However, my uncle had two more kids and my father had three kids of his own. This was a beginning of new generation, my auntie had her first child in the late 2000’s. Each year my father and uncle would always try to have little family time because we don't see each other that much, we called this our family reunion since we don't have a really big family to come together in spend time with each other. However, my father and uncle have friends from the neighborhood called them family too since we were so close to them. This were all of the gangsters come into play, my father best friend was a gangster, he taught me and my cousins a lot of stuff. My family have this hustler mindset, we do not like being broke, we always find a way to go get the money. We all have the same dream is to get out of the hood and protect each
Meeting at my grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving was something of a tradition in our family. Our fathers would gather together and watch football, fists shaking and voices echoing throughout the entire house. Our mothers and Grandmother would crowd around the tiny white table in the kitchen and exchange stories, not that they would ever admit that they were actually gossiping. This left all of us, the kids, to entertain ourselves until dinner. The basement was our preferred location to gather, as it had a fireplace that kept it toasty and there were three couches for us to take apart and use for pillow forts.
It was a Sunday afternoon in a small town where everyone was heading home from church. I had just gotten out of my fancy church clothes when someone knocked on our door. My mom opened the door to find my aunt Debra outside with a bag and my little cousins Kenly and Chloe. Aunt Debra had to work double shift and the babysitter could only watch the kids one time today , she needed my mom to babysit them. My cousins are two crimson red- headed twin girls with green eyes and freckles twins. Both of my cousins are good kids , when there’s elders around. Chloe is really quiet, even when there isn’t an adult around , she just likes to break things and won't do anything anyone tells her.Kenly is loud and is even louder when there aren’t any adults
Our family was never close but we didn’t care. Nobody thought one day things might be different. All of that changed on September 20, 2014 when a hostile argument ended with the death of both my aunt and uncle. For years their marriage was falling apart. My aunt was very materialistic and wanted my cousins to have whatever they asked for but in reality my uncle knew it was impossible financially for them to achieve this. He would try to explain this to her but it usually led to arguments where she would then threaten to leave him so in the end she got her way which led to their vast debt. My uncle had a drinking problem but went to AA classes for her to commiserate their marriage and family. The night before this event he had drank a beer which led into a dispute which ended with my aunt taking the kids to her mom’s and they stayed their while my uncle just stayed home. Less than twelve hours later the mailman walked up to a house with my aunt dead on the front porch and my uncle inside on the living room floor dead. The screams caught the attention of the neighbors and the police was then called. This is a significant experience in my life that I faced and that had an impact on me during my freshman year and still affects me today. It was a homicide/suicide accident and it deeply impacted my family and me. Not only did it affect my school life but my home life as well.
My immediate family that I live with consists of me, mom and dad, two little brothers, one little sister and one dog, that’s six people in one home, my family is loud, crazy, funny, and always on the go. But once we get to a family function, all of that is magnified by 100! There’s even times when it get a bit overwhelming to be around my dad’s side of the family, since we’re mostly around that side. My nana, which is my dad’s mom, so my grandma, is where all of the barbecues and birthday parties and random get togethers take place. For almost any occasion, football games, UFC fights, boxing matches, or just for a random get together, that’s where you’ll find me and my family. There doesn’t ever really need to be a special event for my family to get together, well at least on my dad’s side. Being with dad’s side of the family is almost always a good time filled with love and laughter, we all genuinely enjoys each other’s company. My mom’s side however, we usually only go around when there’s a birthday or some kind of special event. My mom’s side of the family is...complicated. I love them dearly, but there’s always some kind of drama with them. The times when everyone is actually getting along, it’s a blast. Whenever my family has a quince or a wedding or a big birthday party,
I have two young cousins, one is 4-year-old girl and the other is 6-year-old. Long story short, the parents had a divorce and it just astonishes me how the children’s attachment might change before and after divorce. I can’t imagine how my life would be if my parents got divorce. Growing up I would see them fight a lot because of money issues and I did my best to ignore it. They are still together despite money issues, although sometimes they argue about getting a divorce and I told them to promise me not to get a divorce until my youngest brother goes to college. They fight a lot but at the end talk things out, if they get a divorce it won’t affect me. Moving on, I love a lot of my young cousins because they all see me as their big brother. I had the opportunity to play with them a lot when they are young and taught them many things. For example, I had one aunt who was very cautious of her child and I understand you need to be cautious when he is an infant but as he grew older he would be treated like a baby. He was not allowed to eat by himself, even though he had the capability to pick a spoon and fork. His exploration was limited to only his home. It was not until I had the opportunity to babysit him and I taught him how to eat using spoon t an early age and read to him occasionally. His father also did not like the way the mother treating him as a baby but he couldn’t do much because he would work all day. Sometimes the family would come over and my aunt did not like dogs so she did not allow him to pet the dog. At first he was scared of the dog only because my aunt would tell him that the dog would bite but it does not. It wasn’t until I had to babysit him one day and I properly introduce my dog to him. He wasn’t scared anymore. I enjoy spending time with my cousin and watching them grow up at the same time enjoy playing games with them.
"The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never even introduce yourself to, had life not done it for you." -Kendall Hailey. Many people among us think that a family reunion is boring. It is an unpleasant social affair where our parents drive us to go and stay there for a considerable length of time. There are odd individuals who come to us and kiss or embrace us while we are still considering "do I know him/her?”. It is because we believe that enjoying the holiday out with friends is much better than investing hours with the people, we “unfortunately” belong to. They have no other subject for discussion aside from our studies and grades. On the other hand, family gathering is always a new experience for someone who lives far away from his blood relations.