Anyone have any cool family story or tradition or even a train wreck? What cool stories or traditions do you all have for thanksgiving? Since slagpit cleaned out some misfits not behaving, we can probably have some more talking on here without turning the thread going negative and toxic. Credit goes to PE and Slagpit.

Let’s have a decent happy traditions or thanksgiving fails?

Ps. I’m not pointing fingers but the discord server and forums have been pleasant lately, and thought a light topic maybe ok.

I watched my older siblings jump thru enormous personal and financial hoops to just travel across the state. It seemed pretty crazy. And I was in the Army - not only half a world away but in deep competition for the very few holiday leave spots. So we decided to never join in the planes, trains and automobiles insanity. I took others holiday duty (guaranteed superhero buddy status!!) and we used leave to visit during much calmer times. The visits with family were longer and much higher quality.

So the wife and I developed very small personal holiday traditions with just us and the kids. :)

I have a huge family, literally about 4 dozen first cousins on my mom's side. We have various levels of family getting together every year, since it's tough to fit all of us together. We are mostly up and down the east coast, but some are a bit far flung.

This year, we will have 12 at our dinner table, coming from as far away as a 3 hour drive.

Since I was 13 (I am 45 now) I have made the mashed potatoes every year. My youngest sister only eats mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving - not joking - and has been really upset about it the few years I wasn't around to handle the duties.

Love it Vic! On my side, we have a very small family and we keep it simple. It's more about us spending time together and enjoying some good food. No major traditions, just reflection. My favorite time of the year tbh.

Just spending the day with hubby, kids and granddaughter eating seafood. I am done spending the day cooking.

Just having dad and few stray army friends over with nowhere to go.

In the past, Thanksgiving was a grand event. Wall to Wall Italians, cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, just waving and spitting food while they yell at each other. Then we'd all settle in for a game of "Screw your neighbor", what we called "Ganjuu", a family card game we played for as long as I can remember. My first game was when I was about eight years old. There's only two rules. No crying, and first one out has to get every other person a drink or dessert. If you cried, you automatically lost and had to serve the rest of the table.

My grandfather died about ten years ago, just before I got married, that was the end of Thanksgiving. We tried two years later, but my cousin was taken by a horrible cancer at 36, needless to say, we cancelled thanksgiving again.

Then, Thanksgiving took place at my in-laws, and they were welcoming enough. They asked me about traditions, and I told em about Ganjuu. Last year, after about six Thanksgiving's, they brought a deck of cards and a toothpick, and asked me to teach them how to play ganjuu. It was moving to say the least not only how nice they were, but how much I missed my family.

This year, thanksgiving is cancelled due to the untimely death of my father in law, and my brother in law just had a baby not yesterday.

So, for the first time in over a decade, I invited dad to come hang for dinner. I think it'll be nice.

My father-in-law has advanced Parkinsons and, as he's declined, his political takes have gotten more and more unhinged. Each Thanksgiving over the past 5-6 years has become an exercise primarily in not taking his bait.

So glad people participated in this, it’s nice. Let’s include BLACK FRIDAY stories! Any of those?

But as for traditions other than food and football. My mom, Colin, my brother, his partner, and I adopted a family and with 1 of the 4 free turkeys, they and their 4 year old twins will also have their meal. (We get turkeys and hams from my union)

But the boys after they eat they will go deliver food for disabled or home bound and see a movie. (Their tradition)

With so many nobody can always afford feeding 17, everyone will do their own side dish. Bit we have a meeting place for all. Grandma made the best stuffing/dressing. I’ll do one of the turkeys. And my mom do the other 16 pounder at her house lol

I guess a follow up poll is do folks here use sausage, pusyers and nuts in stuffing or non? I prefer none of those inn stuffing lol

Oh I mentioned weird traditions and such: my mom’s youngest aunt gets pulled over almost every other year on Thanksgiving. One year she was pulled over on her way to grandmas (departed) then again on her way home BY THE SAME COP! lol so there’s that!

Keep the stories, traditions and train wrecks of Thanksgiving AND Black Friday coming!

Nowadays my holidays are smaller and quieter. I used to host the big family holiday meals. But as time went on everyone had other plans with their family’s.

But for those meals always had one or two extra place settings. My sister was notorious for dragging someone with no where to go along. She meet them somewhere and find out they got no one and no where to go and invite them along. But I never knew til she showed up. We just smiled and welcomed them in and fed whoever. That was the rule of the house when I was growing up. It’s my rule today. If you’re in our home and need food or drink we provide.

Used to do Black Friday shopping. Craziest was walking out of K-mart (when they existed) carrying several bags of Barbie stuff for my nieces. Walked out the door right into a local tv stations camera guy and reporter. Microphone in face. No coffee yet in my system. Giddy from scoring a haul of cheap Barbie stuff. Pink boxes protruding from bags. Being interviewed.

Which aired again later that morning.

In the kitchen of my nieces parents.

While they ate breakfast.


Needless to say the surprise was gone.

Good times. Crazy times. Memories.

BigDogCWG
Clowns with Guns and Fleas
Former Black Friday Lunatic Shopper

Black Friday...

Amazon. F stores. Not a chance.

Another one in my family is the "Mystery Walk."

To understand this one, you have to know that my family is into scaring. We were the ones in town that was legendary for our haunted house on Halloween.

So, the mystery walk is when, post-pigout, a large group goes out for a long walk in the dark. Meanwhile, a "senior council" of family would designate someone the Mystery Walker. The walker feigns that they are staying behind to help with the cleanup (always several people actually doing this), or sleeping on the couch, or being obsessed with football, or whatever. Then they sneak out and overtake the group and find opportunities to scare them... while remaining undiscovered.

The forms of the scaring would vary depending on the terrain/whoever is hosting, but might be stuff like finding a good tree to climb and dropping stuff as they pass under, or scaring up some animals in their direction, or what have you.

There have been instances of someone being tapped to be the walker after overindulging at the buffet table and losing their massive dinner into the bushes after chasing the group around 😂

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. And so cool to read these stories! Thank you. Gobble gobble

Hope everyone had a great holiday, and if you're not murrican I hope you had a great regular day.