Before we get to this week’s post, I wanted to update everyone on something amazing: Remember last Tuesday when I wrote about an 11-year-old girl named Sydney who stood up in support of her librarian – and was verbally attacked by a very nasty man? At the suggestion of a few folks, I tracked Sydney down and chatted with her Mom, who was so touched by our community’s support of Sydney. Now Sydney herself has visited our blog and left her own comment on that post. I urge you to go back and read it if you haven’t already – and feel free to leave more comments for Sydney, who is continuing to fight for her beloved librarians.
Speaking of smart, kind kids, that’s exactly what I’m thankful for this week – and every other week of the year. I have three perfectly imperfect boys. (Four, if you count my husband). Our household overflows with fun, chaos, and dirty socks – and occasional yelling/wrestling matches and screams of “He bit me!” – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Recently, my 10-year-old, Jackson, wrote an essay for his class describing a Thanksgiving meal and I asked him if I could post it here. See, Jack spends a lot of time creating stories and books and drawings – just like I used to when I was his age. He’s thinking about becoming an author one day (hold on; I’m getting verklempt). Now I’m going to turn this over to Jack, who is pictured in a self-portrait.
Our family never eats the normal turkey and stuffing each Thanksgiving. That’s because everybody in our family likes completely different things. My mom and my brother are vegetarians, and my dad and me hate vegetables. My grandparents eat only the world’s weirdest stuff, which are mostly things the rest of our family can’t even pronounce at all.
Last year, my baby brother, Dylan was only 2 weeks old and smaller than the turkey. So don’t expect me to tell you that he ate it. And of course, when we went to our grandparent’s house for dinner, what was on the dining room table was what I call the worlds craziest Thanksgiving dinner. There was Ledo’s Pizza, Vegetarian-Indian food, and too much more weird stuff to fit on this page. But we didn’t care about the food. We just cared about being with family. (My dad and grandpa probably snuck out and watched the football game about 95% of the time.) Hope you enjoyed it!
Please tell Jackson that I adored his opening sentence! What a set-up! Did I want to know more? Absolutely! As he goes on in life and looks back fondly on his childhood – it will be the weird Thanksgiving that he tries to replicate forever and ever.
I really enjoyed this. Happy Weird Thanksgiving!
What a great essay from Jack! The part about just caring about being with family got me a little misty-eyed.
I love it! I think comparing Dylan’s size to the turkey was pure genius! I think this sounds like a fabulous way to spend Thanksgiving. Keep up the good work, Jackson!
I loved the bit about the baby being smaller than the turkey! That made me laugh. This is such a great example of voice. Ask him if I can use it as a sample in my class for Grade 6&7, please!
I’m another fan of the “smaller than the turkey” bit–hilarious! (And vivid!) Aw, what a sweetie 🙂
As Joelle commented, Jack has a great voice and, ahem, his mom’s sense of humor? 😉 Also love that he has his priorities straight, Thanksgiving is certainly not about the food and Jack has memories to prove it.
Chip off the old block! Hilarious!
Great essay Jack! Congratulations. And for the record, wierd it good. When you and your family come to San Diego, we’ll all go surfing.
Best,
Greg
And you know what else Jack? You know how to spell weird and obviously I don’t.
You go boy!