Thanksgiving Traditions
What are your Thanksgiving Traditions? Our family loves fuss and we love hosting and we love holidays, so it might be surprising to learn that our family doesn’t have a lot of rigid Thanksgiving Traditions.
Growing up, my family frequently traveled to North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with my mom’s side of the family. My mom is one of 7 children and my grandparents were remarkable, so holidays in the McNutt tradition were always boisterous and bountiful. I think my desire for a big family was directly informed by holidays with the McNutts, but as my grandparents aged and eventually passed on the tradition lapsed.
In my early 20s my favorite Thanksgiving tradition had very little to do with Thanksgiving but was instead a Black Friday Bonfire out at my best friend’s parents home. It was pretty much my favorite day of the year. We would bundle up and booze up and sing til we lost our voices around the bonfire. I hope we get to bring this back someday.
In my late 20s with most of my earlier traditions gone, I found myself excited to step into the role of hostess for Thanksgiving, and I enjoyed doing that for several years, but every year the crowd was a little different the menu changed and it never got that default tradition status. Things kept changing, one year Thanksgiving was interrupted by the death of my Grandmother, another year Aaron, Magnus and I were away on a two-week European Vacation, some years we were in Florida at my parents, another at my brother’s in Detroit.
This year we’re at a bit of a loss for how to celebrate. My parents and siblings and our family opted not to try to get together with COVID exploding and all of us being spread across 4 states. We all agreed that we would miss each other on Thanksgiving to try to give a better shot at being together for Christmas. And unlike when we lived in San Antonio, we don’t have lovely extended family or close friends nearby to celebrate the day with.
We know we are making the right choice for our family given the strange circumstances, but we are pretty sad to be alone. This is by far the smallest Thanksgiving gathering Aaron or I have ever experienced.
Do you have any favorite traditions we can borrow?
We do plan to Turkey Trot and are debating our menu, but somehow a full feast for 2 adults and 3 toddlers seems a little silly. I think I’ll still make a floral centerpiece, and I’m sure we’ll still share what we are thankful for, but beyond that who knows?
