In years past, we’ve asked members of the Eventing Nation family what they’re thankful for, sharing their answers with you on Thanksgiving Day. This year, we decided to change it up a bit and ask: What is your favorite thing about Thanksgiving? The responses we received both humbled and humored us. From the EN family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you enjoy this very special day to spend inside/warm and with food, as Sinead Halpin would say.
EN Asks: What is your favorite thing about Thanksgiving?
Doug Payne: “Being that I’ll stop just about anything for food, Thanksgiving is, in my opinion, the best of all holidays. So, of course, turkey is the winner … along with stuffing and cornbread.”
Will Faudree: “This is always a tough time of year for me and my family. My sister died Nov. 22, 2008. So, my favorite thing about Thanksgiving is family and memories. Remembering all the great times and making new ones.” From the EN family to yours, Will, best wishes for a meaningful, special holiday.
Jennie Brannigan: “The best thing about Thanksgiving is spending the last four years at my good friend Kelley Merette’s house, since I don’t usually go home. I tend to eat far too much. It’s my favorite holiday because the food’s fantastic and you don’t have the pressure to buy a lot of gifts. Kelley has also got me into football a bit, and by a bit I mean I’m passed out on the couch in a food coma while she’s jumping around cheering.”
Allison Springer: “My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is being with and enjoying my family. They have been so amazingly supportive through all the highs and lows of my riding career, and I think most of my success is because they have been such solid pillars of support throughout!”
Elisa Wallace: “I love getting to spend the day cooking with my family. I get to make homemade yeast rolls with my grandmother, and I also make the mashed potatoes and sweet potato soufflé. I cherish the time I get to spend with everyone and getting to eat way too much food! And my favorite: pecan pie!”
Sinead Halpin: “Thanksgiving has never been a huge tradition in my family, due to the fact that I am the daughter of two Irish immigrants. As a family we tried to fake it, but after a year or two of getting the turkey wrong and drowning our sorrows in a keg of green beer — which is what Irish people use as a constant at EVERY holiday — we decided to start attending local hotels in our best outfits so others could actually take on the responsibility of the cooking!
“But after spending a few years at the O’Connor holiday festivities, I decided Thanksgiving was a great time to not only have an excuse to drink green beer, but an excuse to hang out inside/warm and with food! I call this IWWF — a crucial code during winter months.
“I am excited this year to have my dad visiting from California, Megan and her family, and our newest addition Addie joining our team for a feast! Unfortunately, I do not cook and half of the attendees are vegetarians. What!? Turkey Day, aka Tuna Day? Not the same ring to it.
“This means pleasant company will have to make up for lack of protein. Green beer, family, and giving thanks for all we are blessed with is the heart of Thanksgiving. And if the Bud Light is green, it’s pretty much like eating a salad! If you are a horse person, make sure to capitalize on not feeling guilty while hanging out IWWF!”
Gina Miles: “Cooking, eating and drinking. As my assistant, Bec Braitling, calls it: ‘the great American eating holiday.’
“I love being in the kitchen all day, enjoying the wonderful smells with a glass of champagne. It is my chance to cook the foods I only do once a year, such as my Grandmother’s Lithuanian kugelis.
“Being domestic and hanging out at home with friends and family is such a change from our nomadic, gypsy lifestyle. It is a welcome respite and a chance to recharge our batteries for the next year.
“My birthday is also on or around Thanksgiving, so, this year, the GME gang will be joining the NLE gang at a hot nightclub in West Hollywood, the Abbey, for some SERIOUS party action!”
Phyllis Dawson: “My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is getting together with my siblings and their families; we usually have quite a big get-together here at the farm. I am cooking for about 25!”
Phyllis also sent us an except from her blog:
I am thankful for living on such a beautiful place as Windchase, and for the people and animals around me. I am very thankful for the great group of trainers, and working students who help make this farm so special. I am thankful for my good friends, and for a close-knit family, most of whom are visiting this week. I am thankful for riding good horses over beautiful countryside. For the loyal lurchers at my side, the yellow kitties that sleep on my bed at night, and for RG3. I am thankful to be able to offer a safe haven to the deer, the wild turkey flock that roams the fields some 30 strong, and the wild geese landing on the lake at sunset. And of course, I am thankful or the servicemen and women who keep us safe and free — may they have a safe and warm Thanksgiving themselves, hopefully in the company of loved ones.
Clark Montgomery: “To be honest, my favorite thing about Thanksgiving is all that comes with spending time with my family back in Texas. We are all self-proclaimed foodies, so it is typically a day of eating amazing food and drinking great wine together and catching up — something I admit I don’t get to do as often as I would like to.”
Jan Byyny: “Good people and good food! We all have something to be thankful for.
Katie Ruppel: “My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is the post-dinner nap. I really love naps.”
Sally Cousins: “My mother-in-law is a great cook and I cant wait to go to their house for dinner. They live in Unionville, and even though we live very close, we don’t get to see Nat’s family very often, so it will be wonderful to catch up with them.”
Lauren Billys: “My brother, sister, and I have come up with our favorite Thanksgiving time tradition. My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is having my grandmother asking me if I want a Piña Colada with my breakfast, and the turkey cranberry sandwiches the next day.”
Kristi Nunnink: “My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is being reminded of all the wonderful things in my life that I am thankful for.”
Colleen Rutledge: “My favorite thing about Thanksgiving has to be how all of a sudden my kids — husband included — realize Christmas is right around the corner and their behavior gets so much better. Happens every year on Thanksgiving; the first couple of years I thought it was a fluke, now I realize it’s designed to keep me sane.”
Hannah Sue Burnett: “My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is gathering with my family and enjoying one of my favorite things on this planet — food!”
Lainey Ashker: “My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is its ability to bring families — no matter the distance — closer together, even if it’s just for one scrumptious evening over a meaty bird. The food is great; the company, albeit loud, is even better.
“However, I think my list of things that I DONT like about Thanksgiving is far more entertaining and is slowly growing as each year passes. For instance, I hate that on Thanksgiving most of the radio stations in my area begin playing Christmas music over and over … and over. I also hate how all of my hard work in trying to be somewhat svelte for the past fall show season is completely annihilated in only one — or three, for some — turkey dinner to the point that I have to either bring an extra pair of sweats or unbutton my pants to give my grossly expanding waistline extra room.
“And being a rather energetic person at heart, the induced ‘Tryptophan coma’ does wonders in breaking my motivation to get my butt back into the gym. Now that everyone — including family you didn’t know you even had — is sitting at one VERY large rectangular table, I love (not) how everyone screams over their neighbor or blocks your vision to the other end of the table as they adjust their seat to prepare to witness a long-awaited argument that ensued during hors d’oeuvres between Uncle Greg and Aunt Linda. Speaking of screaming, don’t you love the emotionally charged and vehement debates that emerge during Thanksgiving? With the recent election just a few weeks past — and if your family is as politically mixed as mine — I am sure most table-side chats may quickly catalyze into another World War!
“All jokes and jeers aside, I do love the holidays. Most of all, I am thankful for my family, my friends, my sponsors, and clients and neighbors. I am especially thankful for my horses, who grant me the motivation and desire to live life to the fullest and give me a happiness that is overshadowed by nothing else. So eat and scream to your heart’s content, my friends, and be thankful for those around your dinner table and those who are overseas fighting for our inherent right to enjoy mindless banter with our relatives on this Thanksgiving Day! Bon Appétit!”
