Whether it is how you actually celebrate or not, Thanksgiving dinner - from two-page spreads in women's home magazines to scenes on television and in movies - conjures up images of turkey, cornbread dressing and cranberry sauce.
Even if you were to ask someone who grew up outside of the United States and has never celebrated the holiday about a "true American Thanksgiving," chances are they could tell you what would be served. Of course, their answers are correlated with what they have seen through popular media.
After all, a family sitting around a big table with a turkey front and center is American, right? Or at least as American as anything else.
Depends. Whether it is Thanksgiving or another national holiday, each family has its own way of celebrating. It's all about your tradition.
I can almost hear Tevye from "Fiddler on the Roof" singing whenever I think about the seasonal buzz word.
This is the time of year when our traditions tend to be the most prominent, whether it is what you serve at the dinner table or when you put up the Christmas tree - before Thanksgiving arrives or in the weeks that follow. Everyone says how in their family they eat this or do that.
As I prepare for a Thanksgiving feast with my friends today, I have also been thinking a lot about my personal traditions.
In my family, we go to a small town in North Carolina each year to enjoy Thanksgiving lunch with my dad's brother, his wife and their children. We eat at my aunt's parents' house - it only sounds complicated - because my grandparents are deceased.
It is a fairly "traditional" spread. If you were to make your way through the kitchen, you would find family favorites such as green beans, cranberries - shaped like the can, just the way I like them - and, of course, the turkey.
You may be surprised, however, to also see a heaping pile of white, sticky rice among the usual suspects.
I have never really thought much of the rice's presence in my Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, I typically find myself piling it on my plate year after year, somewhere near the homemade macaroni and cheese and the roll.
My meal has always seemed so typical compared to some of my friends who, over the years, have mentioned eating everything from a ham instead of turkey to enjoying a full-fledged Italian feast.
The strangest Thanksgiving meal I have ever enjoyed was chicken nuggets from Burger King. That was the year my family missed the main meal because of some "miscommunication" on my dad's part.
With another Thanksgiving on its way and my nonexistent chances of going home to my own family, I have been asked on many occasions what my plans will be this year.
Living in Greenwood, I have been very lucky to be invited into many people's homes to celebrate the holidays.
It is sharing in these traditions, in fact, that I have enjoyed the most - even if it means foregoing one of my favorite starches.
•Contact Andrea Hall at ahall@gwcommonwealth.com.
