This year’s Thanksgiving is going to look a little different for everyone. The Shark Scene staff would like to share what their Thanksgiving traditions are for each of their families. 

Mr. Kuhn, Shark Scene’s Advisor, says, “Growing up, Thanksgiving always meant an early morning where my dad and I would meet the neighbors at the back of their farm and deer hunt all morning. Once we got cold, we would figure out how to orchestrate some form of deer drive and usually get some shooting in, but rarely get anything. Then we would come back to the house and it would already smell so good because the turkey was in the oven. When my God parents and their kids would get there, we would eat around 2 p.m. After an amazing dinner, we would lounge around and watch the Lions or Dallas. Later, we would always play guys versus girls in pictionary or charades.”

Alexandra Pawlitz, Shark Scene editor, explains,“For the Pawlitz family, a thanksgiving celebration consists of a home cooked meal along with participating in fun games. There are usually 11 people at my house consisting of the four people in my household, my grandparents, my uncle and aunt, my cousins, and Andrew. We don’t specifically have a tradition for our dinner since we typically make new entrees every year. However, strawberry applesauce jello has always been a tradition in our household since it’s very popular among my family. Last year, my dad smoked a bunch of meat in his smoker and we used that as our main entree instead of having turkey. The food basically depends on the year since most people in my family don’t want turkey every year and want to change the food choices up. After all of us eat, we sit down as a family and play various games for hours. There will be times we will play board games, but then there are other times where my mom finds family games on Facebook and she makes something creative to use for our entertainment. Overall, the Pawlitz family is very committed to having family dinners and we always have an amazing time not only celebrating Thanksgiving, but also spending time with each other as a family.” 

Keegan Honig, Shark Scene Editor, tells us,“For Thanksgiving, my family gets together and eats food, catches up, and watches the Lions. My grandma, my aunts, and my mom all bake, so we have a ton of homemade food every year for Thanksgiving. My favorite part of the food are the pies because my family always makes several homemade pies. This year will be different as most of our family isn’t meeting together, but my nuclear family will still eat together and watch the Lions.”

Leah Chvojka, Shark Scene editor, explains, “For my Thanksgiving, I never really know what it is going to be like until two weeks beforehand. It depends on if I am going to my Mom’s side or Dad’s side.  If my mom comes home from Tennessee, then we spend time with her. Then, if I go to my Mom’s side, we either go to my Nana’s house or my Aunt Heather’s house. We play lots of card games and board games, eat lots of food, and sing together. There is usually a house full of people each year. For my Dad’s Thanksgiving, it’s normally a small group of just us four, my Dad and my twin brothers Liam and Levi, my Grandma and Papa. Grandma prepares the food while the rest of us are outside enjoying the cool weather and just talking about projects for our property.”

Autumn Mann, Shark Scene staff writer, states, “Thanksgiving for my family is never on the exact date. My whole family struggles with trying to find a day everyone is off of work so we can all get together. I have many different family members so this leads to many different days people work. I usually get a taste of three different Thanksgivings. My father’s side of the family which we refer to as “The Colemans”, then my mother’s side, and then my step-father’s side. It is very hard to figure who I want to spend Thanksgiving with. There’s usually some part of my family  I don’t get to see which can be upsetting. In the end, it’s worth it and I usually find out a way to see everyone even if it’s not celebrating Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday. I’m a very picky eater so it’s kind of hard to be around only a couple of things I actually enjoy. For dinner, we have to usually have turkey or ham with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and an apple or pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie is my favorite kind of pie. I will not eat stuffing because it’s nasty, but the mashed potatoes on the other hand are delicious. They are my favorite dish served at Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a day for me to be with my family and be all together because we usually don’t get to see each other that often.”

Jaszmin Harbor, Shark Scene staff writer, tells us, “For Thanksgiving I usually leave to go to Ann Arbor because I have a lot of family that lives around that area. My family does not do turkey for Thanksgiving because of the dryness and the lack of flavor. In place of the turkey, we cook a whole chicken and we also make yams, greens, mac’n’cheese, and ribs. We don’t watch football because we are big on basketball. It’s a tradition that all the adults that are there have to cook something. I usually help with the cooking too.”

Kay Stites, Shark Scene staff writer, states, “Up until a few years ago my family tradition was getting together, eating, and watching some stand up specials on Netflix. We would get up super early and start helping my mom in the kitchen.  Then we would eat and talk to each other. Once everyone was finished, we would go to the living room and just chill for the rest of the day.”

Alianna Vera-Carrillo, Shark Scene staff writer, explains, “For Thanksgiving this year, we had a friend/family Thanksgiving. My dad made Mexican carnita tacos. Carnitas are steak tacos with cilantro, red chilli, lime, and onions. We watched the Detroit Lions get destroyed by the Texans. We Facetimed my family members telling them we are thankful for them and overall just appreciated everything.”

Mikayla Haag, Shark Scene staff writer, tells us, “For my Thanksgiving, my family and I normally have some of my aunts and uncles over to our house. This year we weren’t able to have anyone over. We did have one of my older brothers over to eat with us. For dinner, we have turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, apple pie, and cranberry sauce. This year we added cheesy potatoes as it’s a favorite in our family. We don’t have too many specific traditions for Thanksgiving other than most of our family typically comes to our house. Hopefully next year we’ll be able to have more people over.”