University of Dayton - MyLife

A Taste of Turkey

This past Sunday, the six different Marianist Student Communities got together to participate in a progressive dinner...Thanksgiving style! Basically, how this works is that each house is assigned a different course of the meal and the group travels from house to house with a plate and a fork, completing each course of the meal at a time. Between our six houses, we had about 35 people in attendance, so it sure was a pretty big crowd, and I'm sure we looked funny walking through the student neighborhood with our plates and forks.

It began at my house where we were assigned to beginning the activity with prayer. Instead of preparing food, we prepared a reading and blessing to say before heading off to the next house with the first course. The second stop on the route was down the street where the gentlemen in the Stonemill community provided fresh salad. Next, we were off to another community on Kiefaber for stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green been casserole! By that point, I was already pretty full, but we hadn't even gotten to the turkey yet! So we headed a few blocks over to Evanston where they cooked a delicious turkey. Then, we trekked all the way across campus to K Street for some pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving-themed cookies. Finally, we ended at Woodland, where I lived last year, for the closing prayer and hot apple cider...yum!

This event was a great way to bring the Marianist houses together, but it also got me so excited for Thanksgiving in just a little over a week. It was like the little "tease" before the big meal with my family that I look forward to each year. I think Thanksgiving is an underrated holiday. It's so unique to our culture and it's something that brings families together without all the consumerism and busyness that comes along with Christmas. It's also a holiday that pretty much EVERYONE in America celebrates, yet no one outside of the country really recognizes it...that's pretty cool and unique!

So next Thursday, when you are having that home-cooked meal, I invite you to appreciate how special this holiday is. I know all of us here at UD are more excited and ready for it to be here than ever! It's the perfect little break before finals hit and it's a chance to go home and really kick off the winter season the right way!

Each night at the community dinners at my house, we share something we're thankful for. Ironically enough, today I'm definitely thankful for THANKSgiving.

Nov 18, 2008 5:50 PM Permalink