Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love the food. I love the fact that gift-buying is not involved. There’s a parade and a dog show and pulling out the Christmas decorations for the upcoming holiday season –so many reasons to feel sentimental on this special day.
But there’s also family.
Don’t get me wrong; I love my family (most of them, at least). But when you gather us all from across state lines and pile us together into one room, there’s no telling how it’s going to go. Sometimes we play games and tell old stories and end up laughing until our sides hurt. Sometimes we remember people who aren’t sitting at the table with us anymore, and it makes us cry. Sometimes we’re brutally honest with each other, and one of us (you know who I’m talking about) will inevitably end up saying something judgmental or hurtful. Sometimes there’s awkward silence and people staring at their phones and waiting for the right time to graciously say goodbye until next year.
Sometimes the anxiety of anticipating how Thanksgiving might play out is enough to make you dread or avoid the event altogether.
Well, have no fear friends, because I’ve got a survival tactic so good, you’re going to wonder how you ever made it through the holidays without it.
This year, try turning Thanksgiving into a sort of mental BINGO game.
Anticipate what people will inevitably say or do at mealtime (the cliché, the bad, and the annoying), and once it happens, don’t get upset…simply cross it off of your mental BINGO card. Suddenly you’re not weighed down with stress at the dinner table; you’re enthusiastically shouting out, “BINGO!” while your relatives stare at you in confusion.
Just in case you need something a bit more tangible, I decided to create a real BINGO card for you to use this Thanksgiving. Print it off or save it to your phone, and let the games begin! If you manage to fill up an entire row (or dare I say the entire card), serve yourself a second helping of pie.
