A time to eat, drink and be merry. A time for friends and family. A time to give thanks for all that is wonderful in our lives. Also a time for pie! What am I talking about do you ask? Thanksgiving of chores, one of my favorite times of year.

A) because there is food

B) because there is family C) much story telling and catching up with people you haven’t seen in ages D) and of course… pie

But seriously people Thanksgiving is the one time of the year when families are actually encouraged to sit down together and talk about their days, their lives, and other things. In an age where faster is awesome and slower sucks with people are spending their days playing computer games, watching TV or listening to an MP3 player, Thanksgiving is an important time of year because it forces us to slow down and spend time chilling with people who matter in your life.

For me Thanksgiving is a time to catch up with loved ones I don’t get to see as often as I would like to, mostly because I have a huge extended family scattered all over the Bay Area. They all descend upon my house each bringing something to eat while my mom takes care of cooking the turkey. We all sit around in the living room watching the little kids run in and out of the house, while the adults kill a few bottles of wine and chat it up about everything from politics to the philosophies of Socrates and Plato.

It seems everyday family values are melting away; as we become more and more independent form our nuclear and extended families. This is because we don’t spend enough time with our families and during Thanksgiving at least in my family people get together and rebuild those bridges that have started to fall apart during the rest of the year.

I have to say on a personal note some of my favorite family memories come from Thanksgiving. My grandmother teaching me how to cook when I was still so short I had to stand on a chair to get up to the counter, making hand turkeys with my cousins and various other things.

So my friends when the time comes around to sit down and celebrate with your family by sitting down to a family style meal, heck take it past Thanksgiving and bring it to the rest of the year. Also, don’t forget to chow down on some pie.