Fixing my Sins

In this paper I added a conclusion to the essay and I added more dialogue to the essay. The dialogue was added in the part about the sin of greed. Also in the part about greed I added descriptions of what was going on when the people were talking. I tried to add how the people were acting to exemplify their words.

Thanks for giving us all these sins

            Thanksgiving, a big get-together with all of your family, there are apt to be problems. That is what happened last thanksgiving all of the seven deadly sins were committed a plethora of times. Every one there committed a sin including my frail old grandmother.

            Despite the fact that Thanksgiving is suppose to be all about being happy and thankful for what you have people’s pity issues come out and disturb the event. It is the natural way of things that when a lot of people get together in a small over crowded house things will go bad. This is especially true with family. No one is trying their best to be polite and nice; everyone is themselves which can be, not the best thing. Arguments and disagreements from long ago are sometimes brought to the surface and replayed with new light. Family are the only people that you are forced to be with your entire life that you do not get to choose. This means that you may not get along.

One obvious sin committed at Thanksgiving is gluttony. It is ok to eat a lot at Thanksgiving but my uncle Earl took it to a new level. I am surprised he did not explode from all of the food he ate. When he asked for me to pass him the turkey for his third helping I could not help but wonder how he was still hungry. My cousin Cassandra whispered to me “Well with uncle Earl around at least we do not have to worry about leftovers.” I giggled this was so true. He was now taking the last of the turkey to complete his third helping.

Every one else had eaten a lot and I heard my cousin Rebecca comment “This was all so good I ate too much, but I gust could not stop”.

Uncle Earl replied, “Well then don’t”.  We had all committed the sin of gluttony at Thanksgiving some more than others, but after we had pie every one was completely stuffed.

            The sin of greed was also committed at Thanksgiving by my aunt Joan. She was always responsible for bringing the mashed potatoes and everyone raved about how good they were. She would commit the crime of pride and say, “I know I make the best mashed potatoes I am the best cook I know”. Being modest was not Aunt Joan’s strong point. She would never tell others the recipe for her mashed potatoes which really irked my aunt Cathy. She had recently married Aunt Joan’s youngest brother and did not fully comprehend Aunt Joan’s greed yet. I over heard their discussion in the kitchen about the mashed potato recipe.

            Aunt Cathy questioned, “Why will you not share your mashed potato recipe with me?  We are family. That is what family is suppose to do.” She still did not know that Aunt Joan would never give up her recipe and there was no point in trying.

            “It is a special recipe that took me years to perfect and it is the only thing special I can bring to Thanksgiving. Mashed potatoes are my dish to bring you can bring the pies” Aunt Joan replied a little fed up with Aunt Cathy. Aunt Joan was now almost angrily scrubbing some dishes in the sink.

            “I am not trying to steel your recipe and your claim to fame around here. I want the recipe so I can make it at my house for my family on days other than Thanksgiving.” Aunt Cathy was now getting mad at Aunt Joan and probably thinking how could a grown woman be so stubborn. That was what I was thinking at least.

            “Well you will have to make your own mashed potato recipe because this one is mine” This was the end of the conservation as Aunt Joan stormed out of the kitchen. Aunt Cathy simply looked at me with a expression like did that actually just happen. I new it did I had known Aunt Joan for my entire life and that was her attitude.

            My cousin Emily who is 25 brought her boyfriend to Thanksgiving and his brother. The two of them had been dating for two years and he proposed to her that Christmas. This caused an opportunity for the sin of lust to be committed, for the brother that is. The brother is good looking and some of the other cousins admired his good looks. He had the classic hair cut and classic good looks and charm. No one acted on their feelings but flirting did occur. My cousin Cassandra believed that he was good looking and got extremely nervous around him and tried to flirt with him all of Thanksgiving. He did not seem the slightest bit interested so nothing materialized out of the occurrence. 

            My grandmother was envious of every ones youth and health. She gave me many lectures on how I should not let my youth slip away and how she wishes she was us. I was sitting around the house watching the Thanksgiving Day parade. She came into the family room and sat down with me. She then questioned “What are you doing sitting around you should be outside getting some exercise or helping out in the kitchen.”

            I responded “It is cold outside and there is nothing to do in the kitchen the turkey is already in the oven and it is too early to start preparing the rest of the food.”

            “When I was your age I did not sit around and watch TV I was active and never thought it was to cold out to go out. Kids these days do not use their youth and energy as people in my day did.”

            She continued on like this for a little while and then I left and said that I would try to help out in the kitchen. She was always reminiscing about the olden days and when she was a kid, some times she could go for hours telling stories.

            Uncle Wilbert is the sloth of the family. He does absolutely nothing and surprisingly gets away with most of it. All day he sat around the house and did nothing but watch the Thanksgiving Day parade. Then after diner he did not even help clean up the meal. Every one else in the family helped in some way with the diner except for him. He did not even play darts with all of the other men in their annual dart game. When people would ask him to do things he would pretend he was busy.

            The annual dart game did expose the sin of wrath in Uncle Frank however so maybe it was best that uncle Wilbert did not participate. Uncle Frank had lost the dart game and was convinced that the others had cheated. He did not believe that they were good enough to beat him fairly in darts. They were playing cricket and Uncle Fred accused the rest of them of claiming that their dart hit the desired number when the dart would hit the board and then fall out. Everyone else said that the darts hit where they claimed and Uncle Fred did the same thing so if they did cheat they all cheated. This was not how he saw it and was not a happy camper. They bickered about it for the rest of the day and would not let the subject drop.

            Thanksgiving it is the time of year when you get together with all of your family. Tensions are high with all of the history between the people and sins are committed. That is how things work on thanksgiving.