Regardless of the method of celebrating, students are in agreement that the long-anticipated break provides a welcome repose to spend time with family and friends, even if it brings traveling and mayhem along with it.

College-style

When Sarah Phinney goes home to Grand Ledge, Mich., during holidays, she doesn’t have much of a hand in the cooking — her job is to do the dishes.

But this year, the music education senior broke out of her comfort zone to bake crescent rolls and cupcakes and hosted a Thanksgiving dinner Sunday night at her apartment. Phinney is a member of the MSU chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota, or SAI, an all-women music fraternity.

Phinney said the group of about 14 members has held cookie exchanges before, but this was the first year they held a potluck-style Thanksgiving.

“I’m going to have Thanksgiving on Thursday with my family, but this is a way to celebrate with your friends,” she said. “It used to be more about family and it’s kind of shifted to being about including friends too.”

Members and prospective members crammed into Phinney’s apartment, bringing everything from a turkey to traditional side dishes and a plethora of pies and desserts.

“Cooking isn’t really my thing, but I like contributing in some way,” she said. “It’s just a different group of people I get to be with and be thankful with.”

Phinney said SAI typically does fundraisers for community-driven projects, but the dinner provided a way for the chapter to bond and build relationships with the prospective members.

“When I passed around the sign-up sheet at our meeting, everyone signed up to bring something, whether it was a dish or just drinks,” she said. “Our entire chapter is coming tonight and usually not everybody shows up for stuff.”

Psychology senior Nathan Bossick also hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for friends in his apartment complex prior to the actual holiday.

“I like to cook so it gives me an excuse,” he said.

Bossick said the food aspect of Thanksgiving is what makes the holiday universally relatable. Like Phinney, Bossick will spend the actual event Thursday with his family.

“I still go home, but I’m not expected to anymore since I’m senior,” he said. “I get to customize it for myself — I’m not going to make yams.”

The holiday of Thanksgiving has its appeal in simply spending time with people you care about, Phinney said.

“Most students celebrate it somehow, either doing something with their friends like this or going out to eat or going home,” she said.

Global view

When finance senior Ruslan Mursalzade first ate a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with his American host family as a high schooler, he was most surprised by the size of the turkey.

“I didn’t know that big of a turkey was possible,” he said.

The Azerbaijan native, who will return to Kalamazoo, Mich., on Thursday to have dinner with the same family, is president of the MSU International Students Association and has participated in organizing a free Thanksgiving dinner for international students who don’t have the opportunity to experience a family-style meal. The dinner also is being sponsored by the Council of Graduate Students, Graduate Employees Union and the University Apartments Council of Residents.

“The goal of the dinner is not only to provide dinner for people that are staying around, but give an understanding of American culture,” Mursalzade said. “A lot of international students are not able to come home or have American families.”

Mursalzade said Thanksgiving is similar to an Azerbaijani holiday that takes place in the spring, during which certain meals always are served and the focus is family.

“It’s all about celebrating a new beginning and being thankful,” he said.

The dinner hosted with other student organizations is important, Mursalzade said, because international students tend to stay contained within their cultural circles instead of branching out.
“It is more comfortable to be around people that speak the same language and they don’t get the chance to get the feel of American culture,” he said.

Homeward bound

Thanksgiving is the day Laura Moore has anticipated for more than a month.

The no-preference sophomore has avoided doing laundry and even grocery shopping because she assumed it could wait until the holiday weekend spent at her home in Battle Creek, Mich.

“I appreciate my family more now that I’ve been away,” Moore said. “It’s a really nice break to get off of campus. Once I know I’m going home, that’s all I can think about.”

Moore said Thanksgiving produces more excitement than when she was in high school because she and her two older siblings, who live in Arkansas and Ohio, go back along with friends of the family who don’t have places to go.

“It’s not only a time to be thankful because I feel like we should be thankful more than one day out of the year, but it’s a day set aside for just family to hang out with each other and have quality time,” she said.

English sophomore Cate Hannum also is heading home, but she has a two-hour flight from Detroit to Boston separating her from her house in Andover, Mass.

“I really look forward to it because I like being around my family and it’s really chaotic,” she said.

In previous years, Hannum said everybody enjoyed being in the kitchen during the cooking preparations, as her mother’s favorite choir music would play in the background with the fireplace blazing in the living room.

“It was really alive,” she said.

This year is going to feel strange to Hannum because her two stepsisters and stepbrother are spending the holiday with a different side of the family. Although the group might be smaller than she is used to, Hannum said she is thrilled to see her mother and two sisters.

“It’s going to be really great,” she said. “I always make that time count when I go home because I only get a minimal amount of time at home.”