It’s Thanksgiving, which for a lot of people means eating more food in one day than they would in week and watching over-sized balloons float through New York City. Whether it’s watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or eating that same favorite dish that your grandmother makes, each of us has some memory of our family’s Thanksgiving traditions. Here at Willow, we decided to share each of ours with you. So join us as we reminisce and share our special Thanksgiving memories with you.

Andrew R. - Um we really don’t have any turkey day traditions. Pretty traditional…Turkey and fixin’s at my aunt’s house. I wish i could say we dress up as pilgrims and others dress as indians and we fight, but that would be lying.

Andrew S. – Every year at our family Thanksgiving we eat and then close out the night with a game of Spoons. This is where you place one less spoon than there are people in the center of a table and deal cards then discard till you get four of a kind. Once you have four of a kind you have to grab a spoon, forcing everyone else to follow leaving one person without a spoon and they’re eliminated. You would be surprised how many people get injured every year at the annual Thanksgiving Spoons game!

Becky – Since in 1986 (our first Thanksgiving together), Brad and I have had this tradition to make our family’s stuffing recipe. My family puts the stuffing inside the turkey while it cooks for several hours. His family make the stuffing with bread and other ingredients and bakes it in the oven next to the roasting turkey. Not my favorite. So the debate continues, but we all know mine is better.

As a child my mom and grandma would make turkey frame soup (found in the old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook) after Thanksgiving dinner.  Then when we are all hungry again after the big meal, we would have turkey sandwiches and turkey frame soup for supper or the next day.  I continue that tradition today and store extra in the freezer for a quick meal later.

Brad – Since in 1986 (our first Thanksgiving together), Becky and I have had this tradition to make our family’s stuffing recipe. My family creates this wonderful stuffing casserole cooked in the oven, soft and moist, yet with perfectly crispy edges. My family makes the stuffing with bread and other tasty ingredients and we bake it in the oven next to the roasting turkey. Her family puts the stuffing inside the turkey while it cooks for several hours creating a dry, mass of starch. Not my favorite. The debate continues, but we all know mine is better.

My favorite part of the holiday is the grazing about 4 hours later (after naps and a little football) as we one-by-obe find out way back to the kitchen. It usually starts with someone snacking on a mini-turkey sandwich, made up on left over yeast rolls, and it quickly expands to a leftover buffet. One of my favorite sides is Little Grandma’s cranberry relish. We all miss Little Grandma being with us, but we remember her fondly as we all gobble up her tasty cranberry relish . . . it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving with out it!

Doug - Every Thanksgiving my Grandma gives each family member a calendar for the upcoming year.  It’s fun to see what she picked out for you.  (And there’s no excuses when you miss a family gathering, because it should have been written down on your calendar).

Ed – We had turkey and pecan pie, I think everyone does. Every now and then we had something that my dad had hunted, like deer, but normally it was turkey. Also, my Mom starting to cook the night before and would stay up most of the night making stuff and my Dad always made Fruit Salad which was his specialty.

Katie – The women of my family – my mom, myself, aunts, grandmas, all the girls – get together to make the big feast on Thanksgiving, but then our real fun begins the next day. We cram into two hotel rooms in either Chicago or Indianapolis to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday shopping and getting ready for the holidays. We go ice skating, laugh, do lots of shopping and usually have a little snowball fight at some point. We have a lot of fun getting away from busy schedules to get together and share some very fun, wonderful memories just with the women of the family.

Kelly – I love Thanksgiving but there is one tradition that we all dread, but is kind of funny too. For the holidays, we rotate through the family who hosts each of the holidays and my Nana always has Thanksgiving and Easter at her house. It just so happens that Thanksgiving is the perfect time of year for us to put away all of her patio furniture and Easter is the perfect time to get it all back out. Almost every time, I forget about the furniture until my Nana gets this look, like she needs a really big favor. We all run away and call “not it”, but in the end, all end up helping.

Kim – Our family didn’t really have any traditions that stand out as extraordinary, besides the usual eating too much, taking an afternoon nap and watching some football. I’m planning on starting a new tradition this year with my little man, Drew, who just turned 2. We’re going to get up early, hit the gym to burn a bunch of calories off before the feast and then watch the parade together. I can’t imagine anything more perfect, can you!?

Kristen – My family is very small.  Traditionally it is just me and my parents for Thanksgiving.  While I love my parents, dinner for three can be boring/a little anticlimactic.  Last year, I suggested that we do something for others.  Perhaps volunteer.  My Mom took it to heart and made arrangements with another family at her church to host Thanksgiving for 30 plus refugees.  We’ll be teaching them about American Thanksgiving traditions and teaching them how to make stuffing, mashed potatoes, canneries, turkey, and all the fixings.  I believe we’ll be watching football, too.

Marizka – Being from South Africa, Thanksgiving is still a fairly new holiday to me. Funny little story: 9 years ago (it’s actually my 9 year anniversary in the US today), when I came to the US, my mom and I landed on Thanksgiving day. My dad and siblings have already been here 2 months by then. We arrived home from the airport that evening to a Thanksgiving spread prepared by the ladies from our church.

The next morning, Dad decided he’ll go show us the Mall, especially seeing that none of us had warm winter coats. Our fist stop was at Best Buy, and we could not find parking ANYWHERE. We finally went into the store, but it was so crowded, we decided to come back another day and went to Kohls in stead to look for coats. Same thing here, the line to pay was snaked around the outer perimeter of the store. We headed into Greenwood Park Mall and went to Old navy. We found really cheap coats but once again, it took us an hour to pay. I though Americans were ridiculous ! It’s a Friday morning and you can hardly walk in the mall! If this was what a weekday looked like, I vowed never to even attempt shopping on a weekend.

It was only at church that Sunday that someone explained the concept of Black Friday to us.

As for traditions, for the last couple of years, Brandon and I put our tree up on Thanksgiving night. We have our own mini “Lighting of the Christmas Tree.”

Mark – my family Thanksgiving tradition is that we alternate between my family and Lorrie’s family for Thanksgiving.

Nancy – Besides going around the table and each person saying what they are thankful for, I also have a book of blessings and the youngest at the table picks out the blessing that will be said before the Thanksgiving meal.

Sarah – Growing up there was always a “battle” within my family during Thanksgiving. No, we weren’t a dysfunctional family who couldn’t get along; everything about getting together was actually quite pleasant. You see the battle had to do with the gravy. There was a line drawn between two sides, a North and a South if you will: those who liked the “good” gravy and those who liked the “bad” gravy. Now depending on which side you were on determined the definition of the “good” gravy and the “bad” gravy. If you were on my side, the “good” gravy was just a combination of your basic yummy turkey stock, flour, milk and salt and pepper. Which meant the “bad” gravy had the worst ingredients ever…the gizzards. That’s right, all of the innards, like the heart, liver and other vital organs that really should not be eaten by any human being.

Now I have family members who are on the other side (the “bad” gravy side in my opinion) and they do not see this concoction as such. To them, it’s the “good” gravy, the best thing ever and ones mashed potatoes, turkey and stuffing should be smothered in this vial mix of organs and turkey stock. Blah!

So if you were a member of my family, which side would you be on? The “good” or the “bad?” Choose carefully…

Sue – My family thanksgiving tradition has always been getting together at my mom’s house or my oldest brothers house. We get together and all of the girls help finish cooking for a lunch time meal. After lunch we always play games and watch movies enjoying the time together.

What are some of your Thanksgiving traditions? We’d love to hear about them!