My First Thanksgiving as a College Student

After a short, stressful week filled with tests and a midterm, I finally took that momentous five-minute drive to my house. Although my arrival home was most likely not as dramatic as my friend’s, who flew home to Seattle for the first time since she arrived at Emory, I was still overjoyed to see my family, visit with old friends, and sleep in my own bed. I woke up Thursday morning under my warm comforter to the smell of pancakes. I got up and enjoyed my first homemade breakfast with my family since fall break. They told me that we would be spending Thanksgiving dinner with my best friend’s family.

My mom, dad, sister and I spent most of the morning cooking for the grand meal we would experience later in the day. My dad cooked four of his famous homemade pies, my mom made her delicious stuffing, and my sister and I assisted wherever was needed. First, we decided to learn the art of preparing piecrusts from scratch from my dad. My sister and I mixed together flour, shortening, and salt to form a ball of dough and then lathered it with ice water. We rolled the dough out and carefully placed it into each pie plate. Finally, we added the filling to each one. About five hours later, four pies sat on the kitchen table: an apple, a pumpkin, a lemon meringue, and a chocolate. My mom added the final touches to the stuffing, my dad cooked some broccoli and corn, and we loaded up the car to go to my friend’s house.

After a careful drive down the street, my friend’s welcoming family and the smell of turkey in the oven greeted us. We were then introduced to one of their family friends who would be joining us for dinner. She was from China and cooked homemade dumplings for us to eat as an appetizer. She made three different types: pork with corn, pork with green beans, and pork with Chinese vegetables. She paired them with a dipping sauce and we enjoyed delicious, fresh dumplings. When we finished eating the appetizer, we played a game of Clue until dinner was ready.

As we tried to solve a murder mystery, the smell of Thanksgiving dinner filled the room. There was an aroma containing the smells of turkey, fresh vegetables, ham, and stuffing. My mom came around and asked what we wanted to drink with dinner, which signaled that it was time to eat. A colorful buffet was set up along the counter. I grabbed a plate and began to fill it with everything on the counter: turkey, ham, broccoli, corn, stuffing, bread, green beans, mashed potatoes, and I even put some brussel sprouts on my plate. The room silenced as we all stuffed our faces with food. As I neared the end of my plate, all the food seemed to mix together to make one flavor-filled last bite. It contained the creamy potatoes, fresh vegetables, seasoned turkey, juicy ham, and savory stuffing. As I entered the highly anticipated food coma, I walked to the couch to lie down.

Everyone eventually joined me and we spent about an hour talking. Finally, my sister mentioned the pies that sat on the counter glowing under the light. We finished the night playing board games and trying all the different pies. I went to bed that night with the taste of tangy lemon meringue pie, creamy chocolate mousse pie, zesty pumpkin pie, and sweet apple pie lingering in my mouth.