We get it, the holidays can be stressful. While on the one hand they’re full of gifts and merriment and excitement and food, on the other they’re overwrought with expensive friends, freezing fingers and desperate attempts to get those extra 10 points so your mother won’t be too disappointed in your GPA for this semester. In order to make the most of your Thanksgiving break, try out these helpful hints to have your turkey and eat it, too.
 
Diet -Just hear me out. We all know our tummies will be bulging by 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon. We all know our eyelids will be heavy, and we’re already planning our schedules around our post-Thanksgiving naptime and football-watching. These are all good things. My challenge to you is to eat as little as possible the week of Thanksgiving, so your stomach will be completely available for turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie and sweet tea to make their roost there come Thursday. Calories don’t count on Thanksgiving.
 
Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade -I know this is Mississippi where our Thanksgiving TV schedule revolves around football, but last time I checked, there’s no football on at 8 a.m. Seriously, this is my favorite thing about Thanksgiving. I set an alarm so I don’t miss a second of this puppy. Putting my Broadway bias aside, The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has a little something for everyone – celebrity performances, Broadway previews, Santa Claus and cartoon balloons. What’s not to love?  
 
Make a culinary contribution -There is no greater satisfaction than knowing you have actually made an edible contribution to the Thanksgiving meal. You know your grandmother has been planning this meal for the past month; just imagine the smile of joy that will spread across her face when you offer to mash the potatoes or make the pumpkin pie. Give the gift of food to your family and to yourself.
 
Humor your family members -Let’s face it. Your parents will ask you to do the dishes, and your grandmother will ask you if you have a boyfriend. There’s no dodging those bullets. Bearing this in mind, do your best to get in a premeditated positive mindset. Thanksgiving only comes once a year – you can grin and bear the shame of telling your aunt, uncle, grandmother and anyone else who happens to ask yet again that you are single for about 24 hours.
 
Make a Thankfulness list -I know, this one’s a little corny, but bear with me. Nothing puts things into perspective like a good, old-fashioned, count-your-blessings list. Exams are fast upon us, and our grades may not be where we would like for them to be. We may be exhausted and just downright fed up with school, but look on the bright side. We go to school at the best university in the South, the one with the most beautiful red and orange and yellow autumn trees, the one with the cowbells and the Dawg Walk and the Drill Field, the one with – for the most part – caring professors and helpful classmates. If that’s not reason to be thankful, then I just don’t know what is.