Thankful, thankful.

I will not hesitate to admit that I had approached this holiday with apprehension. As we’ve gotten closer and closer to Thanksgiving, the first official family holiday where we were made to be apart from our families and had to work to keep our own traditions alive by sharing them with each other, as our schedule for the day and the long weekend filled with plans and grocery lists and many other kinds of lists, I had no idea how this would go. I had the distinct feeling that we’d overbooked ourselves for too many dishes to prep in too little time, given too many affirmative RSVPS to too many social engagements, and generally planned a somewhat stressful day, not at all like the quiet and restful Thanksgivings I spend with my family. I was on my guard for this one.

It was perfect. In this place, on that day, with my strange and perfect little family of a community, this holiday was uniquely and exquisitely Juneau, and one that I will never forget. And it began, as I’ve now learned that all unforgettable Thanksgivings do, on the Wednesday before. As we dragged ourselves to work on that last day before a sweet, sweet, break, shrouded in the fourth day in a row of snow showers, I threw out my old go-to comment on the weather, “maybe we’ll have a snow day today.” It was a quiet day at work to begin with. It seemed that many had started the holiday early by grabbing more time with their families. By 3 pm, conditions were blizzard-ly, even by Juneau standards, and my office closed early for the rest of us. It was so incredible to have a snow day (well, a snow afternoon at least) to kick off this weekend. Such a blessing. I’ll never get sick of snow.

As I was leaving, a few of the women in my office were finishing up working in the kitchen to make a thanksgiving meal for some of the families we work with. They’d been working all day and had so, so much food. They were worried that nobody would come to the meal and that all the food would go to waste, and asked if they could give the JVs some food. I was absolutely overwhelmed as these women loaded up two boxes of food, including an ENTIRE. FULL COOKED. TURKEY. Luckily my housemate Maggie had stopped by to visit my office and would be able to help me carry it all; that’s how much there was! My boss helped us out by giving us a ride closer to the bus stop. I probably have never felt more ridiculous than I did trudging toward that bus stop, through a foot of snow, more snow falling so fast that it was coming down horizontally, holding an entire Thanksgiving dinner. It was hysterical. But I also couldn’t help but think how sad it was that this food couldn’t somehow go to somebody more in need. We already had donations coming to us, so many people wanting to make sure that we could have a full Thanksgiving, and we did have a good meal planned, although I think it it goes without saying that no food in our house would ever go uneaten. I struggled a lot with what my opinion was on what our community should do with all the food. Juneau does make a remarkable effort to make sure every single person is provided with a Thanksgiving meal. Maybe it’s that way in a lot of places and it’s just that this is my first year truly realizing it from working in social services, but the city-wide effort is truly an inspiration. A central location downtown served an entirely free thanksgiving dinner with over fifty turkeys present, and every single agency that myself and my housemates work at provided a Thanksgiving dinner for its residents and clients, as well as putting together Thanksgiving boxes to give to more people. But it does sadden me that even with all that effort, I’m sure that a full meal didn’t get to absolutely everyone. But it was such a blessing that CCS provided us with such wonderful food, such a selfless thing of them to do. We decided to take some of the food to the Turkey Trot the next morning, where donations for the food bank were being collected, and kept the turkey for our feast.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving continued with new experiences as my housemate Maggie took us out, introducing the rest of us to what is apparently a famous bar holiday known as Black Wednesday, the night before thanksgiving and the biggest bar night of the year. After partaking firsthand, I do have mixed feelings about this holiday, as it does interfere with one’s enjoyment of Thanksgiving Day, but honestly, we had a great time.

Let me tell you, everything about our Thanksgiving Day morning was unique. One housemate, Irene, had work from 8 am to noon, and another housemate, Shane, had to go to work at 2:30 pm. We had exactly two and a half hours to finish prepping our meal and eat it. In the meantime, four of us had wanted to go to the Turkey Trot, in costume (dressed as canned foods – I was cranberry sauce). The morning was a recipe for chaos, but we thought we had it all figured out – Irene would put the turkey in before she went to work, the rest of us could sleep until the turkey trot at 10, then we’d come back and finish cooking in time to eat around 12 30 or 1.

I awoke on this day, the morning after our Black Wednesday initiation, to a 7:30 am text message from Irene saying that the power had gone out and that somebody else would need to put the turkey in. Seriously?! The power went out on THANKSGIVING?! Luckily it came back on pretty soon and I was able to put the turkey in, then grab a couple more hours of sleep before the race. I woke up again at 9:40, and I think it’s safe to say that all of us had seriously mixed feelings about the Turkey Trot. We were torn between feeling loyal to the costumes that we had already created and wanting to show them off, wanting to donate to the food collection, wanting to participate, and wanting to sleep (the most tempting of them all). I don’t know how we did it, but we pulled ourselves out of bed and got into those costumes. As we started walking to the race, dimly aware that it had started five minutes ago and that we were actually already missing it, tinfoil can lids on our heads, we were hit by a massive wave of feeling completely ridiculous. We ended up arriving at the race 45 minutes late, stayed for exactly 30 seconds, and left to drag our canned selves home, but not before the local newspaper snapped a photo of all of us. SO we are officially immortalized in the Friday, November 25, 2011 issue of the Juneau Empire, on the SPORTS page which is easily the funniest part of this entire story, incorrectly touted as Best Costume Winners (really, I called and investigated after reading that in the paper – there apparently was some confusion because we hadn’t actually participated in the race, so they couldn’t give us a prize. I guess that’s valid.).

The rest of the day was more traditional, and equally wonderful – we had plenty of time to eat our meal and made it to a few additional gatherings around town before calling it quits with the social engagements and all going to bed by 11 pm. The entire experience was absolutely perfect for my community. It was strange not to be at home in North Carolina, for sure. But it was so cool hearing about the Thanksgiving traditions that my housemates have and trying to bring all of them together to create our own celebration of Thanksgiving. I am thankful for so much this weekend. I am thankful for the kindness of the people here, both those I came with and those I’ve met here. I am thankful for the fog that hangs between the snow-capped mountains and dips down to the channel. I am thankful for the family I have in my friends, the family I have in my community, and the family I have in my actual family, and their incredible support, warmth, and love. It is absolutely a blessing that I was here in Juneau, with these people, for this Thanksgiving, and it was definitely one I will never forget.


Happy holidays :)