Thanksgiving means potato salad you won’t touch, cousins that seem superior, and easy school until Christmas.

Thanksgiving means a new family you don’t really know, reading a couple of books, and naivety of what it means to be thankful.

Thanksgiving means sitting at the kid’s table.

But also:

Thanksgiving means a new girlfriend, a trailer in a college town, and her attempt at cooking a turkey breast.

Thanksgiving means turkey that is kinda rare, consoling the cook, and an inkling of what being thankful is.

Thanksgiving means spaghetti instead of turkey.

But also:

Thanksgiving means cleaning up after your young son, new family that has adopted you, and being that one person that wants canned cranberry sauce.

Thanksgiving means your wife masters cooking a turkey, you start a lifelong battle with dishes, and noticing that there might be something to this thankful thing.

Thanksgiving means watching football with your sleeping son.

But also:

Thanksgiving means reconnecting with family you never knew you had, a second son underfoot, and laughing as your father and wife argue about how to cook a turkey.

Thanksgiving means half the week in the truck traveling across a great state, off the hook from washing dishes, and being thankful to get home safely.

Thanksgiving means afternoons watching football or teaching the boys to shoot.

But also:

Thanksgiving means meal planning for a week before, your wife apologizing for the grocery budget for the month, and your own table laid out for as much family as can make it.

Thanksgiving means no cell phones at the table, making everyone uncomfortable as they tell what they are thankful for, and being the only one that is allowed to say that you are thankful everyone is there.

Thanksgiving means the most fulfilling things in life are the ones you are thankful for.