Away from home for the holidays

Thanksgiving Day, Mo McNally loads her plate with a slice or two of turkey (white meat only please), mashed potatoes, salad, cranberry sauce, green beans, a pile of gravy-saturated stuffing and mom's sweet potatoes (the secret is in the marshmallow and brown sugar). Food covers rim to rim, heaped inches off the plate. "I love the eating," said McNally, a senior. "I eat so much that I have to unbutton my pants. And then I eat more." \nShe works on her mountain of food, packed next to the 20 or so relatives seated around the pool table with a cover -- the only flat surface big enough in the house for the entire family. The grandchildren have finally all graduated to the "adult table," which has been set three days in advance. \n"Mom really gets into it -- breaks out the nice china, tablecloth, the Waterford," she said. \nAll nine of the cousins -- Katie, Megan, Susan, Sara, Joanne, Billy, Mike, Matt and Mo -- finally get to squeeze around the table and pass plates and sip wine and share stories. \n"My favorite part is sitting and eating as a family," she said. "It's all my favorite food, and it's the only holiday where it's all about family. I love it." After the turkey-eating and football-watching (they're Chicagoans -- Bears fans), there's even more family and more food. McNally heads over to the other side of the family's house for leftovers. Along with the cold turkey sandwiches and reheated stuffing, there's always the lasagna, a tribute to that side of the family's Italian heritage. This is a small variation on this American dream of a holiday, but the whole day is one big Norman Rockwell painting, nevertheless.\nBut this year holds a different picture for McNally. Her big brother, Mike, and sister-in-law, Nikki, are house-bound in Indianapolis because Thanksgiving happens to be the day their son is due to be born. The family decided against descending on the nine-months pregnant Nikki for the holiday, and McNally's parents aren't planning much of a holiday so they can drive to Indy in case the baby is born. McNally's other brother, Matt, is in the Navy and has been deployed. The family is scattered. \n"It's almost easier to be all spread out because we'd notice Matt's absence so much more if we were all together," she said. "My parents assume I am going to stay in Indy with Mike and Nikki, but I might rather stay in Bloomington than impose on them in such a crazy time, with the due date and all. And I can work here and earn some money. My parents would die if they knew I might be alone on Thanksgiving Day."\nMcNally has had offers to go home with friends, but doesn't want to stray too far from Indianapolis in case the baby is born. She's running out of options. If she decides to stay in Bloomington, McNally envisions herself watching football on her couch and then heading over to the Waffle House. \n"They're having a special turkey dinner for like $6.95," she said.\nShe laughs. Instead of cousins and Waterford and twelve kinds of homemade pies, it might be waitresses, turkey and cranberries in a booth and TV football -- not quite Norman Rockwell this year.\nMcNally might be alone on Thanksgiving, but she isn't alone among IU students. People all over campus aren't making the trek home for the five-day break. Eigenmann Hall has traditionally stayed open over the break for the students who stay on campus. Twenty-five dollars can get a room for the break. The dorm cafeterias remain closed, so students must fend for themselves at dinner. It just might be a Waffle House Thanksgiving for about 75 students signed up to stay this year.\nNot everyone who doesn't go home stays in Bloomington, though. The reasons for not journeying home seem to be the same; they live too far away, they can't afford plane fare, winter break is just around the corner or something more exciting than mom's pumpkin pie beckons them to places other than home. \nNot everyone who doesn't go home stays in Bloomington, though. The reasons for not journeying home seem to be the same; they live too far away, they can't afford plane fare, winter break is just around the corner or something more exciting than mom's pumpkin pie beckons them to places other than home. \nJunior Nick Cacciola will be in Chicago for the first time while his family eats turkey without him in Massachusetts. He'll pay the $250 to make the three-hour plane trip home for winter break, but this year he and a friend are going to drive to Chicago. \n"There's no specific plan or agenda," he said. "We might go to my friend's place for Thanksgiving in Lebanon, Ind. We also might go to 'Jerry Springer.'"\nCacciola's parents will miss him, he says, but are appeased because they will get to see their absentee son at Christmas.\n"I did get sad last year, only because it was my first Thanksgiving away. But I think my parents liked that I went home with a roommate, so at least I was at someone's house. It was a little weird, spending my whole life there, and then not going home for Thanksgiving Day, but this year I can't wait for the trip. I just want to go for it. I can anticipate going home for Christmas."\nSophomore Caitlin Szymanik lives in Philadelphia, and like most parents, hers want her at home. But they understand the hassles of paying for a plane ticket and the enormous amount of effort it takes to make such a big trip twice in two months. Once for winter break will have to do. The oldest of three, she is missing the traditional big family dinner at her house, a choice she has made for several reasons.\n"Thanksgiving break is just too short to do the driving and flying I have to do to get home," she said. "Plus, going home in the middle of the semester isn't relaxing. There's too much work and papers and stuff hanging over my head for when I get back."\nBut there is no Waffle House dinner in Szymanik's plans. She's going home with a roommate, driving to West Virginia in a Honda Accord to eat dinner at her roommate's grandmother's home. \n"I can't stay here," she said. "There's no way I'm leaving my nice room in Read (Center) to stay in Eigenmann by myself. I'd have to pack all my stuff up, I'd have no computer and no TV or anything -- sad."\nIn the IU world of Pizza Express and Ramen noodles, the chance to sit at a table with family and eat real food cooked with love is something most students await eagerly. But for some, practicalities and life just stand in the way.\n"If everything worked out perfectly, Mike and Nikki would have their baby and we could go to Indianapolis as a family and be together. That would be nice," McNally said.\nBut even if McNally does stay in Bloomington for Thanksgiving, there will be no tears shed in her pumpkin pie, she insists. It's just the way things might work out most easily.