a thanksgiving memory

As many of us prepare to engage in a smorgasbord of food tomorrow, I thought I'd share my most memorable Thanksgiving, so that all of you would have the memory as well. I was in elementary school, maybe in the third or fourth grade (I realize for being so memorable, I'm starting out a little fuzzy on the details).

For a school writing assignment, we had to write about Thanksgiving. I wrote a simply heartwarming piece about how much I loved the traditions of my family's Thanksgiving. How my grandmother cooked, and all the food we had, and how it was simply a day for staying home and being with family and eating. I must have used the word tradition three times in every sentence.

After I turned in the assignment, my parents dealt me a horrible blow. We would not be having our traditional, stay-at-home Thanksgiving that year. Instead, we'd be spending Thanksgiving in Savannah. I felt like such a little liar, telling my teacher that these were my traditions and they would always be that way. But I was slightly heartened by the thought of going to the Juliette Gordon Low home. For a young Girl Scout such as myself, such a trip would be the equivalent of Mecca.

So off we started driving. We got to Savannah pretty late at night, and my dad asked my mom if she wanted to keep driving. I thought that was kind of weird, because we were where we were supposed to be. We did end up stopping, because, as I recall, Barbara Walters was interviewing Kathie Lee Gifford on television that night, and that was something my mother and I wanted to see. I watched Kathie Lee and went to sleep, excited by the possibility of seeing the birthplace of Girl Scouting.

The next morning, my parents woke my brothers and me with the kind of news that should make any child's heart jump for joy. We would not be spending Thanksgiving in Savannah after all, but we would be continuing on to Disney World, where we would share a condo with one of my dad's school friends and his family. My brothers started jumping around. I was kind of morose. "Does that mean we're not going to Juliette Gordon Low's house?" I asked. I wasn't quite sure yet that a fair trade was being struck.

But on to Disney World we went, and of course it was magical. We went to all the parks and tricked my mom into riding Splash Mountain because we told her that the part where it looks like people get wet was just a mirror. There were no crowds and few lines because it was Thanksgiving. We played Scattergories for the first time with the other family. For Thanksgiving dinner, we went to some buffet and the only downside was I tried some pumpkin pie and it made me gag. It wasn't traditional, but it was a great Thanksgiving.

What comes to my mind as I look back on this memory? First of all, I'm really lucky that I have the kind of parents that plan surprise trips to Disney World, something that seems particularly wonderful when viewed through today's lens of families not being able to make ends meet, let alone go on vacation. I was really lucky in terms of family vacations. Second, I learned that traditions can change and result in a holiday no less wonderful. Third, sometimes it's okay to make things up for a school writing assignment, and I probably shouldn't have felt so bad about lying. Lastly, I'm reminded that I have some unfinished business in Savannah. I still have got to go to that Juliette Gordon Low house.