Thanksgiving and Chag (a non-art post)

This was last year's Thanksgiving dinner.  Last year I didn't make it to New York to have dinner with my family, so JewishGuy and I hosted a dinner for our friends.  This was it!  How pretty and colorful and full of turkey leg!

I just wanted to write a note concerning Thanksgiving now that I am observing Jewish holidays.  It feels WEIRD not to have to be on "chag" (holiday) tomorrow, like tonight I can still watch TV, and I can still watch TV tomorrow and in fact I am going to the Thanksgiving parade.  How bizarre for me, now that I've gone through the High Holidays, where every other day (it feels) is "chag," where there is an immense amount of preparation to make sure you can not work or cook or drive tomorrow or the next day.  Now everyone is gearing up for chag, and we are making arrangements for dinner (since we aren't going to make it to New York this year, either), and the idea that we can drive to a friend's house for dinner is really weird to me.

I was having dinner at a rabbi's house recently and we were going around the table introducing ourselves (it was a big group) and the question was, what is your favorite holiday.  Not, what is your favorite Jewish holiday, just what holiday in general.  The rabbi's wife said, "I know my kids hate it when I say this, but they are in the other room - if they were here, I would say Passover, but since they aren't... Christmas!  I know, I know, my kids say, it's not a holiday we celebrate, it can't be your favorite - but it is!  The rest of the country is gearing up for chag, and I just get to relax!  It's great!"

So that's how it is!  Weird.

Of course, I do celebrate Christmas - by going out for Chinese food and a movie, as is tradition.  This year I will actually be with my family for Christmas so my brother and I will party together.  But I wonder, if this is how I feel on Thanksgiving - which is a holiday I celebrate - I wonder how it will feel on Christmas.