Happy Thanksgiving?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all ate too much, that's what you're supposed to do on Thanksgiving. I know I did. I had a wonderful stress free Thanksgiving dinner with friends. We've been doing Thanksgiving this way for about 3 years now it really seems to make much more sense than the normal stressful family Thanksgiving that seems to be the norm. Why does it have to be such an ordeal? All it really is is people getting together for a big meal and being thankful for things that you appreciate in your life. That's it. But so many people blow it way out of proportion and turn it into some kind of ridiculous contest to see who can out "family" everyone else. People will be comparing stats next week back at work.
"We had 11 people at the table for dinner!"
"Oh yeah? We had 23. Beat that."
"Guess you got me there. Did you have a nice time?"
"Hell no! It was miserable! Dennis wouldn't shut up telling the same crappy stories we've been hearing for the last 30 years, Judith was trying to sell everyone makeup, and Steve's kids were total shit heads. Same shit every year."
Why do we torture ourselves like this? We know what happens when the whole family gets together and, despite the shiny happy movie endings, things generally don't end up all nice and fuzzy in real life. It's just a great hassle. Mostly it's just dinner and then everyone sitting around trying not to be the first to leave. So let it go! I know many people use the excuse that the holidays are the only time of year when the whole family gets to see each other. Big deal! The family doesn't really get along all that well, do they? They probably don't want to see each other. Otherwise, they'd see each other more than once a year, right? Don't get me wrong here, family is a wonderful thing, I like mine quite a lot. They do have their problems, just like any family, but that's not the point here. My point is this: Are you thankful for this family that is stressing you out, or are you thankful for the friends that you actually enjoy spending time with? It's called Thanksgiving, so I say go with what you're thankful for.