But Thanksgiving usually isn't as big a disappointment as we have come to fear, either. The days around Thanksgiving aren't the nation's busiest travel times for no reason. Which it might, and sometimes does.
Humans are, after all, tribal.
We've been gathering together for ages, so assiduously that it seems hard-wired for us to do so. Just as birds of a feather, it is claimed, flock together, so humans, when they gather, try to match certain key features. And a lot of Thanksgiving celebrations bring together people whose relatedness is purely voluntary. However we define our tribes, finding them around Thanksgiving seems awfully important to us. And it can help us overlook, at least temporarily, some of the provocative, annoying, or aggravating changes, events, and conversations that seem always to come home to roost right along with us, just as it makes possible eating the second helping of that especially mysterious casserole.