Thanksgiving, my favorite day of the year

Thanksgiving is, without a doubt, my favorite day of the year. Does it mean getting together with friends and family? Nope. Does it entail me going somewhere with lots of great food? Not at all. Is it a day I spend with anyone special in my life? Hell no. Then what makes it my favorite day of the year? Because it is the one day of the year that I reserve entirely for me.

Every Thanksgiving I simply disappear from the world. I turn off my cellphone. I don’t get online. I don’t answer the door and I damn sure don’t leave my home. It is truly heaven on earth.

I start the day by actually sleeping in (to me, sleeping in is anything past 7:30 a.m.) and getting out of bed whenever. I’ll head downstairs, make myself breakfast, and then bask in the absolute silence that is Thanksgiving. There are only two mornings each year that provide such a lifeless serenity — Thanksgiving and Christmas morning. God, I’m getting excited just thinking about it. Anyway, after breakfast I’ll open up the window and just listen to the quiet for a little bit before truly beginning my day…and what, to me, makes Thanksgiving my favorite day of the entire year.

Throughout the entire year, I look forward to Thanksgiving with the same intensity that a child does in anticipation of Christmas.

I have only two tasks before me every fourth Thursday in November: firstly, I have to watch the ultimate collection of Christmas movies/shows and secondly, I have to put up my Christmas decorations. The movies and shows? “Miracle on 34th Street” (the original, not that crap remake from the ’90s), “A Christmas Story”, “It’s A Wonderful Life”, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, and “The Year Without Santa Claus”. God, this day alone puts me into the Christmas spirit like nobody’s business.

Why the hell do I spend Thanksgiving like this? Well, it all began back in 1990 when Scoot and I shared an apartment during college. I woke up early the morning of Thanksgiving feeling awful. Little did I know that a case of the flu was going to redefine my life so much. I ended up staying home alone that day, curled up on the couch, watching Christmas movies. After spending the entire day alone without any contact with the outside world (aside from when I called my Mom to tell her that I wouldn’t be at Thanksgiving dinner), I realized just how truly calm and refreshed I was after that day. I decided then and there that I was going to do that every year from here on out. Sure, I’ve had several years when I was unable to have my Thanksgiving…but for the most part, this is the exact routine I follow each and every Thanksgiving.

Throughout the entire year, I look forward to Thanksgiving with the same intensity that a child does in anticipation of Christmas. All my worries go away. I have no troubles nor a care in the world about anyone or anything…that day is entirely mine and mine alone.

Sounds pretty weird, huh? Not to me, my friend…not to me. Come on, Thanksgiving! I can hardly wait.