How do You Make Thanksgiving Special for Your Family?

A couple of hours ago I posted some of the ways Busy Moms Online readers spend their Thanksgiving day, and promised more. Enjoy!

* My husband’s family is Italian, and every year we have a big Thanksgiving dinner at an aunt’s house. Several aunts and uncles, cousins, grandchildren, and grandparents get together and the food is always fantastic! One of our cousins is a chef, and we put his talents to good use. The food is typical Thanksgiving fare, with one notable exception. The first course of Thanksgiving dinner is always escarole soup. This soup seems to have become popular lately, since canned versions called “Italian wedding soup” have hit the grocery stores. My husband’s grandmother makes a huge pot of it from scratch each year, and we always look forward to this tasty part of the meal. Escarole soup has a chicken broth base, tiny meatballs, shredded chicken, escarole, carrots, onions, seasonings, and orzo pasta. We serve it with fresh grated Parmesan cheese and warm bread. It’s hard to only eat one bowl, but we all try to pace ourselves so we have room for the big dinner and several dessert options! So, while soup may not seem like an exciting tradition, Thanksgiving is the only time of year my grandmother-in-law makes it and we all look forward to it. It’s something my husband’s family has done for as long as any of them can remember, and a nice way to include their Italian traditions into a favorite American holiday.

* My Thanksgiving family celebration always includes some of the best holiday treats such as sweet potato pie, pecan pie, date nut balls, and all of the rest. We all enjoy desserts so we tend to have a lot more than we could ever eat just to have enough to last us for awhile. Probably the favorite of us all is date nut balls because they require a lot of labor to create, so we all mix up a batch and all join in the rolling and shaping of the balls in coconut, it is a great holiday tradition. In most cases one batch is not enough, probably because of all the taste tests, so we will have to do it multiple times, which adds to the fun!

US $10.00 (11 Bids) End Date: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 18:46:29 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

* A Thanksgiving tradition that my family has done for years is inviting at least one person from the community that had nowhere else to go for the holidays. We make it our mission to keep an eye out for someone that needs a place for a nice, family Thanksgiving dinner and then we invite them. Some years, there have been more of these people than there have been family members and yet it seems to always be a very fun day. When the person arrives, we put them right to work alongside the family or send them to watch football with the family members that should not be allowed in the kitchen whichever choice suits them. The main thing is that they are not alone and that we are better for having spent the time with such wonderful people.

US $13.50 (4 Bids) End Date: Saturday Jan-10-2009 22:31:37 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

* A Thanksgiving tradition that we have had for many years is that we all get together for Thanksgiving dinner. After we have had our dinner, we all go outside and play football and have the best time. When it starts to get dark we go back inside and draw our names for Christmas. We have such a large family that instead of buying everyone presents we buy for the persons name that we draw. FUN! After we finish that we play board games and other games until everyone is so tired they have to pass out. We always have a great Thanksgiving Day holiday.

US $85.00 (17 Bids) End Date: Wednesday Jan-07-2009 9:04:09 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

* Every Thanksgiving my family makes a “what we are thankful for” tree. Each person that will be present at the thanksgiving meal that day contributes.

Start with a bunch of pieces of paper and pens. Each person in the family then writes the three things they are most thankful for and then they are saved for dinner time. As dinner is eaten, each person reads their list.

This leads to many stories, shared memories, laughs and leads the conversation to last hours after dinner is done. We have even had guests that have taken this tradition home with them and continued it on with their own families.

* We have a huge group for Thanksgiving every year with 30-50 guest, including many children. While the moms are gossiping around the cheese plates and the dads are watching football, all the kids are hard at work in one of the bedrooms or the playroom. The older ones write, cast, direct, and choreograph a show that we all look forward to seeing after dessert.