Thanksgiving Family Traditions

What do you do with your family on holidays, especially with Thanksgiving coming up? What my family does on Thanksgiving and Christmas is meet at my grandparents’ house in Alabama. That’s where my family on my dad’s side is at. This year for Thanksgiving my family is meeting at a cousin’s house since it’s not only a bigger house, but to try and change things up a little. 

Food 

When it comes to food, my family makes the traditional food typically eaten on Thanksgiving. Also, we make a few different things such as green bean casserole and, if I remember correctly, sweet potato pie as examples of adding new foods to a thanksgiving feast with a big family even if both dishes have been traditionally a thanksgiving dish. The dishes are made the way my family knows how to make them. A few people, such as my aunt for example, like to nap after food because turkey makes people sleepy if you eat too much of it. A dessert I’ve added once before was peanut butter balls. The dessert is as the name gives. The peanut butter balls can be plain, covered with frosted flakes, powdered sugar, or even almonds. 

Late nights playing games and talking

My family tends to play games while waiting for food. The games we play are either football, soccer, cornhole, mad libs, or some board games if anybody is up for playing board games. We also tend to stay up to past midnight telling family stories or memories. They’re all funny, but most of them are hilarious. I just sit there and listen since I don’t have a story or memory to tell. If I do, I wait until the stories or memories that are similar to the stories or memories I want to say. I tend to learn a lot from these memories and stories being told because they’re things I didn’t know about. Sometimes the same stories and memories are told because nobody really remembers telling them and it’s fun to retell the stories and memories.

Last thoughts 

Thanksgiving gives us family bonding time with family members we tend to not spend a lot of time with because we might live half an hour away or even states away. Phones are helpful to connect and communicate with those family members, but it’s more fun to be with those family members in person than through a phone screen. 

If there is any “advice” I would give, it would be to try and call or get in touch with the family members you don’t see all the time. Even if you’re in college, off on your own doing whatever you’re doing, or taking care of a family of your own! 

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