I reclaimed Thanksgiving.

The idea started when I had chicken pox over Thanksgiving in 6th grade and my family left me at home to go have Thanksgiving with my grandparents. Then during college the relatives I would have had Thanksgiving with decided to bail at the last minute... so I threw my own together, even had a couple friends drive up from San Francisco.

My wife's sister and brother-in-law are devout vegetarians yet get uber-pissed if "mom and dad" don't do every other Thanksgiving with them. The first time we were left without family for Thanksgiving, we threw an "Orphan's Thanksgiving" whereby we invited all the friends and acquaintances who were in town but also didn't really have family to visit. The end result was far more like a party than an awful, dreaded family engagement. We've been doing it ever since - yeah, it's nice if family can show up but we're bloody thankful that we know so many cool people to hang out with. We're probably even doing it on Friday this year so that we'll get to see the people who do have dreaded family obligations to attend to.

Thanksgiving is much too important a holiday to spend dreading. I know you're young, but when you have the chance to reclaim it for yourself, fist in the goal, my friend. Thanksgiving is the only no-strings-attached feast holiday we got and by damn, it oughtta be done right.