The Four Types of Thanksgiving Folks

There are basically four types of folks that celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. That’s not to say there aren’t exceptions to the rule because there always are. But how can you not love a holiday that’s all about being thankful and food? Here are my four categories. Let’s see if you fit into one of them.

I, myself, do not.

First, you have those who love to plan and shop for the holiday.

They plan the meal. They plan all the decorations: special tablecloths, special napkins, special napkin holders, special candles, special everything! They have every knickknack you can possibly imagine decorating every single corner of every single shelf. And then, after they get all that decorating done, they plan and buy all the ingredients for all the food.

Those folks are in the first group.

I am not in that group.

Second, you have the folks who love to cook the meal. They start cooking the meal, prepping for cooking the meal, and even prepping for the prep of cooking the meal days in advance! They make their special deviled egg sauce. They have their eggs boiled days in advance. They have a plan for what gets done scheduled down to the day, to the hour, and yes, on Thanksgiving Day, even to the minute! These people love to cook. They love the preparation. They love everything about getting that Thanksgiving meal ready.

They’re in the second category.

I am not in that group either.

Then you have the folks who love to serve the food, say the blessing they’ve memorized and practiced for weeks, and then sit back and enjoy watching everybody else eat the food. And, of course, they eat the food too! That is a wonderful group to be a part of. Saying a blessing for everything you’re thankful for, enjoying the company of family and friends, and eating some fantastic food. That’s a good group to be a part of.

Nope – not part of that group.

That leaves us with the last group.

Now, this is a very odd group. You may not agree with me, but there are people out there who actually love to clean up! They love it when everybody has left the table so they can break out those special storage containers of all different shapes and sizes and start putting away the leftover food. These are the people who not only have multiple sizes and shapes of storage containers, but they also have a bottom for every top and a top for every bottom!

You see, they usually go out and buy new storage containers right before the holidays. And when they get through putting away all the food, they simply love cleaning! Yes, as strange as it may seem, these folks love cleaning and getting everything spick-and-span.

This is an oddball group of folks to be a part of, but they’re out there.

I am definitely not part of this group.

So, there you have it. Those are the four groups I have come up with, and as I said, most people belong to one, if not several, of these groups.

Then where would Yours Truly fall?

Well, for the last 68 Thanksgivings, and for however many more I have left, the answer is very simple. I fall into that rare group of people who love doing all four things. I love planning for the holidays. I love clearing the shelves of Halloween decorations the very next day after Halloween and putting up Thanksgiving decorations on the first of November.

I love going out and buying new decorations, new placemats, new napkins, and yes, even new drinking cups!

I love planning the menu and preparing for the food. I really enjoy cooking the food days ahead of time and getting up early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day to cook some more. I love all the smells of this special holiday. I consider it an honor to say the blessing and give thanks for everything we have because we truly are blessed. And yes, I’ll admit it. I enjoy eating all that special food you normally only have once a year at Thanksgiving. And I do, even though it’s very tiring after all the above, enjoy the cleanup because I really love a clean kitchen and dining room.

But most of all, above everything else, I enjoy getting together with family.

Think about this. If you live to be 75 years old, that’s only 75 Thanksgivings.

This year, I’ll have used up 68 of mine. That’s the average I’m talking about, but I plan on having over 20 more!

And I plan on doing all four of the above at each and every one of them.

From The Wife and me, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!