I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break, even though no break is ever long enough.

My Thanksgiving break started with family time. My aunt has a house in the Poconos so I, along with 18 of my cousins and their significant others, stayed there for a day. It was a lot of fun as I got to spend time with family members I haven’t seen in a long time. With life being so busy for all of us, it’s rare that we can spend time together. It was an amazing day to spend with family and loved ones.

After spending time at the house in the Poconos, I went home for the rest of the break but, sadly, my parents were not home. One of my sisters is studying in Italy for a semester so they decided to go see her. I missed them but I was happy they got to see my sister after three months. So, for Thanksgiving break, it was my younger sister and I holding down the house.

The first night I got back to my hometown was the night before Thanksgiving, one of the biggest nights to go to a bar. My friends and I wanted no part of that so we visited at my house instead. We already know everyone in our town and just wanted to see each other as we haven’t seen each other in a few months. One friend has moved to San Francisco and two others have moved to the city so it was awesome catching up with them and hanging out like old times.

On Thanksgiving Day, my sister and I celebrated with our dad’s side of the family. There were only nine of us there but it was so much fun. We all live in the same area and are very grateful to see each other during the year. Being close to family is one of the many things I am grateful for this year.

After spending a few hours with my family, I headed to my girlfriend’s house to have dessert with her family. I had only met her mother and sisters prior to this point, so I was a little nervous. There was no need to worry; her family was very nice and welcomed me immediately. I spent the rest of the night there and we had a great time. I played Mario Kart with her 5-year-old nephew, who was very good at it. We played for over an hour and, although I hate to admit it, he

did beat me more than I beat him. I walked away with my head held high but I was a little rusty. Overall, the day was amazing and I am truly blessed with the people in my life.

The rest of the week went by really fast. The day after Thanksgiving I was in a food coma and barely left the couch. I spent time with my sister and hung around the house. On Saturday, I went to my cousin’s house to see her new baby, who is just five months old and so cute. Since I wasn’t able to see her much when she was a newborn, I spent a majority of this day with her.

My parents came home from Italy on Sunday. I was so excited to see them because I haven’t seen them in a few weeks. I was so glad that they got back safe and had a great time there. We had dinner and my sister and I listened to awesome stories about their two-week trip. They saw all of Rome and showed us pictures of all the sites they got to see, proving they crammed in a lot of sightseeing while they were there. I think my mom may have taken 300 photos on the trip so she had a lot to show us.

After seeing my parents, I went to my girlfriend’s family’s house to celebrate Hanukkah for the first time.  I have never experienced anything like this so I was excited to see how Jewish people celebrate the holiday. There were a lot of traditional Jewish foods, potato pancakes being one of them and I ate a lot of them. We also played Spin the Dreidel, then they said some prayers in Hebrew and we lit the menorah. It was very different from the holidays I celebrate but was so much fun and I can’t wait until next year.