When thinking about Thanksgiving, one usually imagines a table surrounded by family and friends, a beautifully cooked turkey, glazed brown from the oven, and a wonderful assortment of desserts to choose from to top off the food coma that almost everyone will be in by the end of the night. These are all staples of the typical Thanksgiving, but there are also many different traditions that have been passed down throughout the ages. Liam Haskill, Siobhan Dunn, Clarissa Lopez, Ryan Nickel, and Courtney Wixom all have their own traditions and favorite foods that they love above the rest.

Liam Haskill, 17, has a tradition in his household where “everyone in my family chooses a few dishes to make, and we all contribute to our dinner.” These dishes will usually consist of typical Thanksgiving dishes, such as stuffing and mashed potatoes. While Liam’s tradition comes before the food is served, Clarissa Lopez’s family tradition happens at the dinner table. Clarissa says, “My family’s Thanksgiving traditions usually consist of us all getting together and getting into friendly debates over everything from food to politics. We are all very active in reading the news, so Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to share our thoughts with each other.” Courtney Wixom has her family traditions throughout the dinner and afterwards, where her family watches Charlie Brown together. This tradition was made by Courtney and her mom when Courtney was only 8 years old.

One of, if not the most notable aspects of Thanksgiving is, of course, the food! The students at Rocky love all different types of food, due to their different backgrounds, and are not afraid to share the foods they love. Liam’s favorite Thanksgiving food is mashed potatoes, because “they are simple to make, but a lot can be done with them.” His favorite dessert is a family specialty, called “pink stuff.” Liam doesn’t know what pink stuff is, but he says that “…it’s a special type of fruit salad.” Siobhan’s favorite Thanksgiving food is stuffing, because she “love(s) the way it gets sort of soggy with gravy, which makes it extremely satisfying.” Her favorite dessert is any type of homemade pie, specifically apple pie. Siobhan says that apple pie, to her, is “very seasonal.” Clarissa’s favorite Thanksgiving food is “ham and turkey, because it’s really the one time of the year I can have both on my plate.” Her favorite dessert is also apple pie, because it is “a classic pie that you can’t go wrong with, and never fails to put a smile on my face.” Ryan’s favorite Thanksgiving food, like Liam’s, is mashed potatoes, however he also likes green bean casserole. He likes these two foods because “they’re both good tasting and good textured food.” His favorite dessert is called “marshmallow cream fluff.”  Finally, just like Ryan and Liam, Courtney also loves Mashed potatoes. Her favorite dessert is pumpkin pie, because “it is a classic pie that I’ve always loved.”

Though many students usually look at Thanksgiving as a few days off from school, the one thing that everyone needs to remember is the purpose of Thanksgiving: to be with family and friends; to share a day together where everyone can get together at one table to give and get thanks from the ones they love. No matter how good the food, dessert, or the traditions are, the one thing that everyone will have on Thanksgiving will be each other.