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| Traditions make holidays great |
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| Opinion | |||
| Written by Aaron Cedeño | |||
| Wednesday, 25 November 2009 08:00 | |||
I can’t pinpoint the exact year that it happened, but somewhere along the line I became a Thanksgiving guy.  Growing up, I’m pretty sure every kid’s favorite holiday is Christmas – for obvious reasons. I was no exception, and don’t get me wrong, I still look forward to Dec. 25 with breathless anticipation. I still have trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve; conditioned by years of lying in bed wide awake, straining for the sound of reindeer hooves clattering to a landing on the roof. But in the past few years, because of the togetherness it inspires, Thanksgiving has taken on a special meaning to my family. Where it used to be a foregone conclusion that everyone was together for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, times have changed as my siblings and I have gotten older. For example, I got married in 2007, which means that we split holidays between my family and my wife’s. Because my in-laws live in San Antonio, and because it’s easier to get time off during Christmas and New Years, we always do Christmas with them. My brother went to college at the University of Notre Dame and is now in graduate school in Cleveland, so he doesn’t get as much time at home as he did in the past. It’s all stuff that’s a consequence of the passage of time, of kids growing up, but it has played a significant part in the evolution of our family holidays. As a result, Thanksgiving is now when my family pulls out all the stops, and we cram a lot of celebrating into a five-day span. For many families the best part about the holidays is the many unique traditions they inspire, and my family is absolutely no different. Here’s how a typical Cedeño family Thanksgiving unfolds: Things start on Wednesday night. After my dad gets off work at the hospital in Pittsburg, he, my mom, my youngest sister Alex and my brother A.J. trek up Highway 69 to Kansas City, while my sister Ashley heads over from Lawrence. For many years now we’ve spent the holiday with my Aunt Mindy (Mom’s younger sister), Uncle Brett and my two cousins, Christian and Elizabeth. When the rest of my family arrives in town, Katie and I meet up with everyone – usually a Mexican restaurant – for dinner, drinks and general merrymaking. Thursday progresses about how you would expect. Everyone gathers at my aunt’s house in Olathe by mid-morning, where dinner preparations are already underway. It’s a day filled with food and football, and one of my absolute favorite traditions is our annual marshmallow fight. Sounds weird, right? Well, trust me on this one, it’s not. We’re not running around with bags of marshmallows tossing them at each other willy-nilly. A few years back, my aunt encountered a “marshmallow gun” at a craft fair. It’s a device constructed out of PVC pipe, in which a bite-sized marshmallow is placed in the makeshift chamber, and a quick burst of air sends it careening towards a target with surprising speed. I’m fairly certain my aunt’s neighbors think we’re positively certifiable at this point, but nevertheless every year we scramble outside and spend the better part of an hour shooting each other with the sticky, gelatinous orbs. It’s an unbelievable amount of fun. Friday is spent celebrating the birthdays of my mom and my brother, both of whom were born right around Thanksgiving. To do so, we engage in another long-time tradition, by getting dressed up and heading to Cascone’s Italian Restaurant in Kansas City, Mo. The original Cascone’s was the site of my parents’ first official date, so not only is it home to great Italian food, it holds special significance for our clan. The rest of the weekend runs without a set schedule. Last year, for example, my brother, dad, uncle and I headed to Arrowhead Stadium for the annual Border War game between the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri. As huge Jayhawk fans, the dramatic ending to that game amidst a driving snowstorm provided me with one of my all-time favorite holiday memories. When KU quarterback Todd Reesing hit an open Kerry Meier for what would be the game winning touchdown, my family – and every single KU fan around us – went absolutely ballistic. Fifty years from now, that’s going to be one I treasure. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Maybe not the days themselves, but the memories they give us a chance to create. Here’s hoping all of you have a fun-and-family-filled day tomorrow.
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