ThanksgivingTurkeyCover

Thanksgiving, more than any other holiday, brings families together. And when they get together there is a mixture of fun, food, awkward and uncomfortable conversations, and family traditions.

How do you celebrate the holidays? That’s the question I asked the Roundpeg crew. Here’s what they said.

Lorraine – My husband’s family always played Charades after dinner. We don’t get together as often now that the kids are grown, but I have fond memories of his grandmother acting out titles for movies she had never heard of.

Lydia – On Thanksgiving Day in 2008, Becky (mom) decided that she didn’t want to make a turkey, opting instead for an individual Cornish Game Hen for each member of the family (5 of us in all). Upon seeing a small bird on my plate, I quickly chose to become a vegetarian. Almost 10 years later, this has been one of the contributing factors to the change in our Thanksgiving dinners.

The other contributing factor is the crazy amount of traveling all five of us have done – almost 50 countries between the 5 of us! Nowadays, we all pitch in for an International Thanksgiving Dinner. Last year, I made Gado-Gado, Tim (dad) made tamales and dumplings, Anastasia (sister) whipped up some French cheese puffs, Becky brought some Scottish sticky toffee pudding, and Joseph (brother) made Peking duck.

Peter – Thanksgiving is amazing! When it’s not on my birthday, which periodically falls on the same day. My parents would take my brother and me to our aunt’s home for a big, family-style dinner. We’d watch the Detroit Lions lose their Thanksgiving game (it was a grand tradition 2004-2012), admire my uncle’s chest freezer of venison, and cautiously ask if any had made its way into the hors d’oeuvres.

Sam – My typical Thanksgiving consists of the three “F’s”: Family, Football, and Food Coma. Thanksgiving is also typically a pretty hectic day because the last few years we have been going to multiple Thanksgiving meals between my step-mom’s family (who likes to eat early) and my dad’s side of the family (who likes to eat later). Two Thanksgiving meals is a good problem to have.

However, this year my dad and step-mom are hosting so that means I don’t have to take my food coma show on the road. He is also making two turkeys this year. One, he’s doing in a brine and the other he’s doing in his smoker. So yeah, I’m pretty psyched for this one.

Cherilyn  With a decently-sized extended family that still manages to put up with each other, I’m used to packing as many people as can fit in a large SUV (seat belts be darned) under the guise of getting out of the house so we can distract ourselves from clashing personalities and family drama. I truly say all this fondly, especially now that all the cousins are grown and can leave of their own free will.

Our maturation, however, does not prevent grandma from bringing festive holiday paper cutout characters, each with a few handwritten lines about the goodwill and generosity of the season. The four of us line up and read aloud the same platitudes we’ve read for years while the rest of the family is required to pay attention. At least she doesn’t make us dress in costume anymore.

Melanie – Always one to go a little outside of the norm, I spend my Thanksgiving with friends. I am still very close with four friends from high school, and no matter the physical distance between us every other day of the year, we somehow always manage to come together for Thanksgiving. All in attendance bring something to the table, both literally and figuratively, but our focus is never the actual turkey. We have collectively pioneered the idea of Friendsgiving as well as what we now call Sidesgiving, since we know that the true heroes of this holiday are actually the side dishes.

Rebecca – Not to sound like a broken record, but Turkey Day is all about family. I’ve been fortunate to spend almost every Thanksgiving with my parents and while I know the day is coming that at least one of my kids will not put in an appearance, so far the five of us have managed to gather around the holiday table.

Benny & Clyde – Thanksgiving preparations at Roundpeg are always fun. There is the annual hand turkey creation session. Of course we don’t actually get to make a turkey, but we help by walking through the glue, knocking the scissors on the floor, and batting the crayons around.

However you celebrate the holidays, we hope it is filled with laughter and good food.  From all of us at the ‘Peg, Happy Thanksgiving!