No More New York

I legitimately think Thanksgiving is a nice holiday. When I envision Thanksgiving, I think about my family's old tradition, which changed a couple of years ago when my grandparents moved from the NYC area to South Florida (as Jewish grandparents are wont to do). Each Thanksgiving, we would fly to New Jersey, spend three or four days in their apartment, and hang out with that side of the family (grandparents and one set of aunt/uncle/cousins). The food was all over the place: my grandmother is an excellent baker but an average cook and would occasionally prepare the food too far in advance (old matzah balls, not the tastiest). My nuclear family would also spend a day in the city each year, which is one of the few places I really like Christmas decorations. Rather than the tawdry, mawkish music and decor we seem to relish here, the windows at Macy's and the Times Square tree are really quite pleasant.

Now, with my grandparents in South Florida, my mom's sister's family still in the NY area, and my sister in college, we do Thanksgiving on a smaller scale. We still watch the Macy's parade and enjoy a sizable, Jewish, vegetarian (no Tofurkey) Thanksgiving meal. We spend time together as a family, often hiking. But it's no longer the event it used to be. There's no huge tragedy in that-- we'll still see all of our family, though I do miss our annual sojourns to NYC.