As I walked in the doors of my grandparents’ condo, I said, “Happy Thanksgiving” and hugged both of my grandparents. Both seemed somewhat confused, they looked at each other with puzzled faces. It had been several months since the last time I saw them and it seemed clear that they didn’t recognize me.

A juicy turkey, plenty of mashed potatoes and stuffing and don’t forget the sliced cranberries. A basket of King Hawaiian Sweet Rolls to go around, a hot green bean casserole to celebrate the season and a fresh pumpkin pie spice smell filling the room. I envisioned all of my favorite Thanksgiving food items on a decorated, crowded dinner table with a wine bottle to top it off. However, I ended up having grocery store pizza and salad.

You did not misread. I did in fact enjoy mediocre grocery store pizza and salad. I made sure to build up an enormous amount of hunger because I knew that for my Thanksgiving dinner, I would be eating lots.

The circle table consisted of my two grandparents as well as my family of five. We were all packed closely together, gathered around a sad Thanksgiving dinner. The only Thanksgiving decoration was a cloth with a pattern of turkeys are on it. I tried to make quick conversation with my grandma, asking, “How is your dog doing,” but my question went unnoticed by her, almost as if she was ignoring me.

Eventually, I was saved. I had forgotten that my family decided on baking and bringing four pies from home, two of them being pumpkin pie. I am an avid pumpkin fan. I won’t deny it. I managed to eat four slices of pumpkin pie, which half-cured the disappointment of this holiday. The rich texture, dark orange color and the crispy outside crust reminded me of a true Thanksgiving night.

After dessert, we participated in our usual family activity: card games. After all, my grandparents were the ones who taught me the rules of many different card games. We carried on throughout the Thanksgiving night, neglecting our unusual holiday dinner. The card game came down between my grandma and I, and I ended up beating her. Her and I have a friendly rivalry when it comes to playing card games, and I always remember her words, “There’s no love in card games.”

Usually she congratulated me after our favorite card game “Blitz.” She would say, “Congratulations, Zack!” and slide me a dollar, as a reward for beating her. This time, after we realized that I had won, I waited for the exact same words to come out of her mouth. I looked up at her, and I met her shiny hazel eyes. My grandma said, “Congratulations!” She seemed to try to say my name, but ultimately could not remember who I was in that moment. Again I met her shiny hazel eyes, and said to her, “Good game Grandma.”