Food, Family and football. It is the beginning of the holiday season and no better way to celebrate than with these three things. A lot of students celebrate Thanksgiving this traditional way.
“The house is really crowded on Thanksgiving. [There are] 20 people all crowded into this country house,” junior Tommy Roseman said. “If you go into the kitchen, it’s a chaotic mess. You shouldn’t go into the kitchen. There are so many people trying to cook. It’s usually the Aunts and the Grandmas doing the cooking.”
Some families come from all over the country to get together on this special holiday.
“My whole family is there,” senior Ashlyn Herrington said. “They come in from Chicago, and other places.”
Some students go to other parts of the country to celebrate with their family.
“I usually go down to Florida to my step grandparents’ house,” sophomore Andrue Johnson said. “My whole family will meet in the pool and the ocean to swim.”
Almost all of the families celebrate Thanksgiving with a lot of food.
“My grandma makes chicken and noodles, and it’s really good.” Roseman said.
“Mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole are my favorite things to eat,” Herrington said. “My grandma always makes this strawberry Jell-O and marshmallow dish, and it’s amazing.”
“I don’t really like Thanksgiving food. A few years ago, I made my wife buy pizza for me on Thanksgiving,” math teacher David McDorman said. “I don’t like turkey, or any traditional food. I know, it’s weird.”
Football is also a very American Thanksgiving tradition that a lot of families celebrate.
“[On a scale of one to ten of how crazy we are about the football game,] I’d say our family is about a six,” Herrington said. “My family is more of a baseball family.”
“We are a ten,” McDorman said. “Growing up, we would always play football in the yard. We would carry over the football game on TV into a competition outside. We usually just want to watch the football game, but we don’t really care [who wins] because it’s usually Dallas and Green Bay.”
Families usually try to spend a lot of time together by playing games with each other.
“We usually play board and family games like Trivial Pursuit,” McDorman said.
“We watch home videos, and we’ll play phase ten. That’s a blast. Pretty much everyone does it,” Herrington said.
Some families do traditions that aren’t very traditional.
“We do a weird water ballet [in the pool,]” Johnson said. “We have boys against girls. They get a song that they want to do, and they do choreography of their own water ballet. It takes about an hour for each team. We get into the pool, turn on the stereo, crank up a song, and we dance in the water.”
“Usually, I’ll try to out-eat my grandpa,” Roseman said. “My grandpa will say how he is going to eat as much as I can. He will not stop eating. He’s relentless. No, [I don’t think I’ll beat my grandpa this year]. I think he’s been practicing.”