Ready for some word association? Ready…Thanksgiving: what comes to mind? Turkey. Stuffing. Football. Probably cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes. Maybe board games and Christmas movies. Definitely regretting the handful of pounds you gain in one day.

 Regardless of how typical or unusual your Thanksgiving is, most of us have traditions we can associate with the holiday. Maybe what we do don’t even seem like traditions anymore, but we all have something we can contribute. And graciously, many of you have volunteered to share with the campus what your Thanksgiving is. Here’s a sampling of the simple, silly and sometimes strange things that make up Thanksgiving for Monmouth College students.

-“Considering I’m a vegetarian, I would say it’s a tradition of my family to continually offer me meat for dinner and then laugh and laugh at how funny they are.” – Kelsey Cole

-“Every year the butt from the turkey is planted on someone’s plate without them knowing.  One time my aunt almost ate it without realizing what was really on her fork.” – Misty Czapla

-“My family gathers around a big table and eats baby food -- but only the baby food flavors that correspond to the various traditional Thanksgiving foods.  It’s sort of a new twist on an old theme.” – Erik Davis

-“My mom bakes homemade cinnamon rolls with icing and wakes up me and my sisters for the Thanksgiving day parade.” – Katie Ferree

-“I have Thanksgiving dinner with both sides of my family, and stay home and watch the farm so that my dad and stepmom can go to Ohio.” – Celsey Link

-“For thanksgiving, my family goes to my grandma’s house for the big dinner. After dinner, the women make some sort of craft, such as snowmen, wreaths or gingerbread houses, and the guys play cards and watch football.” – Rachel Bognar

-“Before my grandma died during my freshman year here at Monmouth, our family would actually celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day. We would call this Chrisgiving. It was a great tradition for the many years that we had it!” – Kristin Wilson

-“One of our biggest family traditions on Thanksgiving is after dinner setting up all of the Christmas decorations at my house, then sitting around afterwards and watching “Its a Wonderful Life.” – Melissa Breier

-“For Thanksgiving dinner we always have a traditional meal.  However, for dessert, we not only have the traditional pumpkin pie with whipped cream, but we also have chocolate birthday cake because my sister, Maya, has her birthday on the 23rd of November, which is always on or near the holiday.” – Sally (and Professor Monie) Hayes

-“My family’s Thanksgiving traditions are usually pretty simple.  However, my dad and other brother also make a traditional Filipino dish with thick noodles, onions, oysters, sliced hard-boiled eggs, garlic and a bunch of other stuff. We also try to get our dogs involved, giving them a small plate of whatever we have.” – Marc Arulfo

-“My family’s tradition is rather traditional.  We go to my grandma and grandpa’s house, and the traditional turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce and stuffing are served. What is rather funny in my family is that my grandma is a huge gambler and card player, and we always end up playing card games for money!” – Sammy Morgan

-“One tradition that we have is we all go around and say what we are most thankful for in the past year from having everyone together. There are usually about 50 people gathered for the holiday so it’s a great way to catch up with relatives too.” – Dan Campione

“Every year for Thanksgiving, my mom’s family gets together to celebrate.  She is one of eight children and our family is large so we have to rent a cabin. We always celebrate it the weekend before Thanksgiving…and after lunch, my cousins and I get into a vicious game of spoons; there’s usually blood!” – Karah Goetschius.

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