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What makes Thanksgiving great? Well, I'll tell you.

I spent today with my family and my best friend. Seeing as I consider her my family as well, that just made the day more complete. I want to know when Thanksgiving evolved into something so traditional and special that more people celebrate it than they celebrate Christmas. How is it, that even if you don't know the real reason behind the holiday, you still want to get together with your family, eat some turkey and pumpkin pie, and just watch a football game on tv?

Oh, and the great food has something to do with it too, I suppose. Though the biggest reason we gather at Grandma's house is to sit around and visit with people we don't see every day. This is the day when you sit at the kitchen table and listen to the most amazing stories from your Great Uncle Larry, and laugh with your Aunt Millie about one of your crazy younger cousins getting pumpkin pie all over the front of their shirt. Today we celebrate family. That's what the original celebration on Thanksgiving was about, wasn't it? The Native Americans welcoming the pilgrims into their family and making them at home in this new land.

A lot of us seem to have forgotten that, and I for one was one of them. I hadn't had a real Thanksgiving for several years, and today I found what I'd been missing out on: my family.