Many families around the nation have their age-old holiday traditions they follow when it comes to celebrating Thanksgiving. However, for Quinnipiac University student Emma Robertson, one of her favorite traditions happens when the feast is over.
“Usually on the car ride home, it’s a really long car ride, we always play Christmas music,” Robertson said with a smile. “We don’t start it before and then we always do it on the car ride home. We play a new CD every time.”
Every Thanksgiving, since the time she was little, Robertson and her family travel from her house in Maine to her grandmother’s house in Vermont. The drive is five hours each way. However, for Robertson, the drive is worth it.
“I don’t have a lot of family close to me,” Robertson said. “Christmas is always just me, my parents and my brother, and Easter is always just me, my parents and my brother. So Thanksgiving is the only holiday I actually spend with family.”
Robertson explained that its become more difficult to see her family over the years as she has become more involved, both in school and in extracurricular activities.
Aside from her parents, brother, and grandmother, Robertson’s aunt and cousins are usually in attendance. They enjoy their Thanksgiving meal together in the early afternoon before her cousins leave to visit their father.
Robertson and her cousin are often involved in the cooking process. Robertson specifically remembers the times she would help her grandmother cook the homemade studding when she was little.
“I remember when I was younger, I used to always help my grandmother cook,” Robertson laughed. “Specifically I remember, I don’t remember what year it was, but helping her make the stuffing, and I remember they always put me on ripping the bread. I just remember ripping up bread.”
For Robertson, though every Thanksgiving is almost the exact same as the last, she finds comfort and warmth in the familiarity of the holiday’s events. Above all else, she is happy to be able to spend time with her extended family, even if it is for just one day out of the year.
“It’s nice because we all get together and it doesn’t often happen.”
Emma Robertson is a Human of Hamden.