There are many holidays throughout the year in which we are expected to visit family members. Quite a few people dread these days more than going to the dentist.

Why would anyone not want to see his/her family whenever s/he has the opportunity, you ask?

Well, Cindy Brady, not everyone had an enviable childhood, and not everyone looks forward to being stuck with her family asking a million questions about her life.

Sure, turkey rocks. No one can argue against that. Is eating turkey worth spending hours in a car with your family each way, only to be stuck yelling to your grandma that she has hot toddy dripping down her chin? I’m going to guess it isn’t.

How many other people’s uncles get drunk and start berating everything the younger generation has ever done, from music to the time you tried to wash his car to be nice? That’s right, you aren’t alone.

We all love our families, sometimes because we are forced to by larger family members, but putting all of any family in one room and adding food and booze has never had a good outcome, especially around the holidays when everyone is more lonely, spiteful and worn out.

Some families will support and console each other. Other families will judge and cut each other down. Guess which family is more prevalent in today’s society?

Even if families didn’t treat each other so horribly, Thanksgiving still seems like the wrong holiday to celebrate, as it isn’t really a holiday anyway. Then again, what can be considered a holiday these days? With the diverse families most of us have, it is becoming rare to meet a family that celebrates one religion, and one religion’s holidays.

Can any of our families really celebrate Christmas, Hanukah or Kwanzaa alone? We would have to go deep and figure out which holidays are really celebrated by agnostics and atheists to really get the whole spectrum. Are any holidays celebrated? I’ve never met a family that was satisfied with a person not attending Thanksgiving because of their agnostic viewpoints.

Many centuries ago, some Europeans stole land and we celebrate it with turkey. Makes sense, right? Um, no. I don’t care who you are, this doesn’t make a lick of sense. Thanksgiving is a strange holiday, celebrated mid-week and often mid-day — many feel the travel is a waste of time. I couldn’t agree more. I love my family, but this year, I don’t think I am going to bother with the trip just to see a bunch of people I will be forced to see in a month anyway.

That’s right, one month until that religious holiday where we celebrate a baby being born over 2000 years ago. We celebrate by giving each other gifts and putting plastic decorations in our snow-covered yards. For the agnostic, Jewish, atheist children of Christian families, I give you props for dealing with it. I have to put up with it as well.

So, I think Thanksgiving might be sacrificed this year. I can still get my Thanksgiving dinner, just a little modified. Looks like I’m having a turkey sandwich, potato chips, craisins and a pumpkin-frosted sugar cookie. Mmmmm …

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