The Thanksgiving season has officially begun!! Yay!!! We just love everything the holiday season brings: traditions, food, and family gatherings. In celebration of this awesome holiday, we decided to share some of our favorite Thankgiving family traditions with you.
Alicia:
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays! We always go up to Gainesville to celebrate with Pat’s family, and for the past several years my parents have been joining as well! It means so much that both sides of our families gather together on this holiday to cook, laugh, and eat LOTS of food!
One of my favorite traditions happens the night before Thanksgiving, when all of the girls are in the kitchen prepping food for the next day and baking pies. My sister in law, Grace, and I have our annual apple peeling competition. We are pretty hard core. We have our own peelers that we bring with us, and we even have a theme song we peel to! Even though I have lost (by a mere centimeter or two) for the past several years, I am feeling good and think 2015 is my year to win!
After the apples are peeled and the pies are in the oven, we have a HUGE flour fight. Flour ends up EVERYWHERE. I am really excited to introduce Harlow and my niece Lucy to the flour fight this year!
Pat:
The Rohan family always coordinates a massive football game that dates back over 30 years (talk about family tradition). We have two teams divided up by age: 18-29 are called the Juniors and 30 + are the Seniors. We pull out all the stops with a lined field, MVP Trophies, and even a real referee. All of the family participates, and after the game we gather for homemade potato soup and an awards ceremony. It is a great way to kick off my favorite holiday.
Cody:
Most of the traditions that surround the culture where I grew up largely revolve around food (go figure.) At Thanksgiving in particular, we pull out the recipes that we love to enjoy in the company of our friends and family. Apalachicola is a major fishing town, so we always include oyster casserole and baked shrimp casserole in our entourage of edibles. My dad makes the BEST deep fried turkey on earth, and we always follow it up with an early morning, hour-long drive to Panama City, where we wait in line for Black Friday deals. It isn’t the materialistic value of the deals that make us drive that far, but more the camaraderie of just having to go that far to shop at Walmart! Haha!
Patricia:
For Thanksgiving, we go to my family’s house, and my husband and I always cook everything from scratch! While my husband and I are spending quality time together covered in flour in the kitchen, my family is watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. After we are finished eating and chatting, I watch Hallmark movies, and the rest of the family and friends play board games, talk, laugh, and eat some more!
So, what do you do for Thanksgiving? We would love to know what some of your family traditions are!
Happy Thanksgiving!!!