Whether you hate them or love them, Thanksgiving is a time for family. If you can't wait to fly home and see your beloved, fluffy canine friend Toto, good for you. If you're dreading the long drive home, only to be greeted by your Aunt Gertrude delivering backhanded insults, then you need to suck it up. The undeniable point here, is that Thanksgiving has been made out to be a happy, celebratory family holiday centered around stuffing ourselves with way too much food (thanks Hallmark)! So, even if you can't stand your entire extended family, there's no avoiding them for the next couple of days. There are a few things to keep in mind, though, whether you're looking forward to this holiday or not.
Most importantly, forget the diet. Thanksgiving is the one day of the year that everyone eats as much as physically possible and refuses to feel bad about it. No matter how committed you are to your diet, why would you ever want to miss that? Eating as much gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pie as you want, and not feeling guilty about it, is beautiful in its own way (I mean, maybe only if you're a food lover like me...) Putting on holiday weight is nearly a culture-wide fret, but in fact, the average amount of weight gained from Thanksgiving to New Years is less than a pound.
Alcohol. Whether its to a necessary means so you can ignore the screaming toddler sitting behind you and kicking your chair on the entire six hour plane ride home, or it's so you don't reach across the table and strangle your bratty thirteen year old cousin, or so you can laugh along with your grandmother as she criticizes your generation in every way possible, it's necessary.
Go into it with a positive attitude. There's a lot of aspects that can ruin Thanksgiving. Bickering mothers, grandmothers, and aunts in the kitchen? Mood killer. Ridiculous Black Friday crowds at 8 in the morning? Frustrating. Visiting family taking over your bedroom and bathroom? Infuriating. The important thing to remember here is to calm down, take a deep breath, and remind yourself that it will all be over in a few days. Yep, take that mental Xanax.
Come up with a few go-to lines. Every time an older relative quizzes you about your romantic life? "It's going well, I'm casually seeing someone, but I'm really too busy with [insert what applies to you: classes, my internship, my career]". Every time someone makes a snarky comment about your new haircut: "*sigh* It's just not appreciated over here like it is on the West Coast..." Brainstorm some lines like these for yourself. Make them just snarky enough to end the conversation, but still socially acceptable enough that no one's feelings are hurt.
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