As vacation looms near, students and teachers around campus are engulfed in an aura of anticipation and excitment for Thanksgiving. Some will lounge and not do anything but eat, while others have plans for the week which will consume their time.

While most sports teams will have completed their seasons, the basketball team has practice on campus every day except Thanksgiving day. They will also scrimmage against C.V.C. on Nov. 24.

The rest of the student body interviewed have a wide variety of activites and ways of celebrating the week off from school and most are not active couch-potato NFL football fans.

“I am going to be chowing down on grotesque amounts of turkey,” Michael Ward, ?03, said. “But I still don’t believe in Thanksgiving. I like to refer to it as the ?day of turkey’.”

A few students interviewd planned on being active with sports not normally associated with late November.

“I am going to be wakeboarding in the cold water of Millerton Lake,” Adam Leislie, ?04. “I’m also 4X4-ing with my brother. I will also just be hanging out with my friends.”

One student is planning on a holiday on the water but off the coast of Mexico.

“I am going on a cruise to El Baja with my family,” Brad Kooiman, ?04. “This will be my first cruise and I am going to play golf and just relax. I will be going with my family and friends from church.”

While many are looking forward to the vacation, for others the break plans are not as joyful.

“I am getting my teeth pulled,” Charles VanHofwegen, ?02, said, “and I’m not looking forward to that. I know I won’t be able to eat and that’s a drag.”

Yet there are still some who will be celebrating the holiday as they have for years.

“I am playing football with my cousins,” Susan Portugal, ?03, said. “It’s an annual event I look forward to every year. Getting muddy is fun! I would rather play football than watch it on TV any day.”

While other students indicated they would be spending a lot of time sleeping during the week off, even Vice Principal Ginger Niemeyer will not get up as early each morning.

“I will enjoy sleeping in and not worrying about getting things done ?before the bell rings’ as I do when school is in session,” Niemeyer said. “But Thanksgiving also means barbequed turkey (my dad does a great job with the bird on the grill), spending time with my wonderful grandparents, and the Thanksgiving Day service at my church.”

School and second quarter resumes on Nov. 26 and the countdown to Christmas vacation begins.