Finding Tatum’s Purpose: Thanksgiving

By Tatum Sorrelman

Tatum in front of the College of Theology

Fall break was amazing! It was so nice to be able to sleep in every day for a week and not have to worry about homework and projects. Plus, spending time with my family was great! 

The weekend of break, my mom, my brother and I went to my aunt’s house to celebrate Thanksgiving. I have a big family. My dad has six sisters, so every time we gather together it’s always crazy fun. Imagine a house filled with six aunts, six uncles, 12 cousins, two sets of grandparents, family friends and two dogs, as well as food covering every single open space. That is how my family celebrates Thanksgiving.

Once all of the food is done, we pray as a family. Then we make a line and, one by one, each person gets their food. My dad and my sister were out of town that weekend for my sister’s softball tournament, so they were not able to make that particular Thanksgiving celebration.  But, we celebrated early, so that meant that we could have two Thanksgivings. And that’s what we did.

Thanksgiving morning, my mom had Orange Julius ready for all of us. It is something special that she makes during the holidays. We all hung out in the kitchen and living room watching the parade on TV. After that, we went on a family walk because the weather was too good to pass up. Once we got back to the house, it was time to start cooking.

We had a variety of different foods on Thanksgiving – turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, Brussels sprouts, green bean casserole, stuffing, yams and pecan pie. After all of that food, we were all extremely tired. So once everything was cleaned up, we all sat down on the couch and watched not one but two movies. It was one of the best Thanksgivings I’ve ever had.

My sister and I also went shopping for Black Friday. We didn’t go out on Thanksgiving night but we got up early enough the next morning to snag some of the deals. It was crazy! There were so many people out, but I had a blast shopping with my sister and trying to get some Christmas presents bought before it gets too close to Christmas.

I can’t believe how fast the semester went by. I still feel as if I just started school. This semester has been full of challenges and change but it has made me a better person. I had so much fun in all of my classes. And being able to meet new people and try different things has been incredible. I can’t wait to see what next semester has in store for me.

Follow my journey at GCU! Keep up with my campus experience by checking out my blog posts and videos.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Grand Canyon University. Any sources cited were accurate as of the publish date.

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