Ah, Thanksgiving. It probably should instead be known as Foodeating or Footballwatching, considering that is done a lot more than giving thanks, but whatever. It's a five-day weekend, that's the part that matters to me.
My brother got home from college last weekend and Wednesday my family drove to the home of my maternal grandparents in Iowa. My mother's brother and his family were also there, including a Norwegian foreign exchange student that is living with them for the year.
Observations:
Everyone helped make the food. That was the fun part. The cleaning up was less fun, and it took a little more encouragement. The kids forced the grandparents out of the kitchen during cleanup, as they had worked the hardest in making the food.
My family and my mom's brother's family are very different. My whole family is definitely more introverted, whereas their entire family is very extroverted. This is evident with the foreign exchange student. My family is just not the type to host a foreign exchange student. We wouldn't be very good at it. Their family, however, has hosted three, and they seemed to have gotten along very well with all of them. They just become natural members of their family for a year.
Speaking of the foreign exchange student, he brought some interesting questions to my mind. What would it be like to experience the very family oriented holiday of Thanksgiving in a foreign country? You are in a house you had never been in before, with people you have never seen before. It takes a special type of personality to be able to handle that.
He also seemed very grateful to be accepted into my cousins' family, and comfortable being a part of it. He seemed really close to my cousins, as if they were actually biologically related. He hugged my aunt several times like one would hug a biological mom.
I observed a couple of things about myself. I can't be in a crowd for extended periods of time. On thursday for several hours 6 or 7 more people came over to my grandparents' house on top of the 12 that were already staying there. It created a big family socializing event, which I did not want to be a part of. I'm bad at socializing already, and the awkwardness of doing it with distant relatives you barely know made it even worse. I cherished my escapes into the basement to use the bathroom, just because I could be not with people for a couple minutes.
In general, I observed that even though I was away from home seeing family that I only see about once a year, I still spent a lot of time on my laptop, by myself. I guess I just can't adapt to the change in personality that is necessary to constantly socialize with family. I need something to be the same as at home. I know I should be able to be better when it's family, but I can't.
I might add more if this ends up not to be enough. I'm all blogged out for now.
I found a great amount of humor in the fact that you found joy in going to the bathroom at your grandparents' house. I actually can relate to that based on my Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a nice Thanksgiving. It was really nice of you to make sure your grandparents didn't have to clean up. It must have been really nice to see some of your relatives that you don't always get to see.
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ReplyDeletePaul! I loved that you included the part where you had to hide out in the basement bathroom to escape the chaos and nuisances of relatives -- I've been there and done that too, except my situation was in China with like a billion distant relatives who I, just like you, didn't really know. Also, I noticed that my family spent the vast majority of Thanksgiving break on their laptops: I was usually browsing Reddit or watching movies on Netflix; my brother and his girlfriend were surfing the Internet for Black Friday deals; and my parents were Skyping relatives in China. I think it's kind of sad how we choose to alienate ourselves to our laptops instead of spending quality time with our families, but hey, I did it too.
ReplyDeleteI could tell that you were really being honest in your blog and not just making something up that would serve as good blog content. It sounded like your voice and I could really imagine the way you were looking at things because I have felt like that before too in certain situations.
ReplyDeleteI hate the weird feeling you get too during holidays where the routine changes, it makes you change yourself a bit too and you feel like you need something familiar to anchor yourself. Although for me it's food, not a laptop.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you had an interesting Thanksgiving. I have to agree that much family at the same time can be a bit too much.
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