My family always does things big. All of our get togethers involve lots of wine and hanging out, tons of food, and someone always gets into some kind of trouble. This year, we all got together to eat at my Grandma’s. Before we went, my cousins and my brother and I decided that we needed to meet up and pick out some games to play while we were over there. So, we went to my aunts house and looked in the closets, found a few to bring, and then decided to work on the kegs that they had over there. We had a few beers, make some White Russians, and decided that it was going to be one of “those” holidays. Before we went over to my grandma’s, my brother and I stopped and bough each of us a Five Hour Energy because he was tired. So, before we even begun the diner, we had all had a few drinks, and were all hopped up on energy drinks. The dinner was AMAZING. We were all laughing, everyone was in a good mood, and afterwards we all got to play games because no one was tired from eating so much. So, for anyone that thinks their family holidays need a little bit of a boost, I can say that the Five Hour Energy shots will be a tradition in ours from now on probably.

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One year at Thanksgiving when we were younger, my aunt decided that she wanted to try and make a fruit salad pudding concoction for dessert. She got all the ingredients together and started cooking, but something in the middle of the process didn’t go right. By the time dinner was ready, it was apparent that the dessert didn’t come out how it was supposed to. Now, on a different but related tangent, we always make it a point to play lots of games when my family gets together, and one of the most popular to play is called Balderdash. It’s a game where when it’s your turn, you get to draw a card that has a word and the definition of the word. Then, everyone gets to try and make up a definition of the word that they think the other people will pick as the right one. Then, everyone gets to vote on what definition is the right one, and the person with the most votes on their definition wins. So, the same year that the dessert didn’t work my family was playing the game when the word “zizzyvau” came up. Someone decided that the definition of this word should be the leaky dessert that my aunt had attempted, and put that down as their definition. Hilarity ensued, and over a decade later my aunt still makes the drippy dessert and we still call it zizzyvau. It’s things like this that I love, just the random traditions that wont ever go away. And this year, the zizzyvau was just as good as the first time.

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Tonight on the news, they were talking about all the Thanksgiving festivities that were going to be happening this week. All good and fun, who doesn’t like to hear all about the fun stuff going on during the holidays? They were talking about all the most common traditions that families in the Texas Panhandle have, and then, they had to break in and ruin it. They went on to talk about all the things that can go wrong, and the probabilities of those things happening to us as watchers. They were talking about how often people catch their houses on fire trying to fry a turkey, which I had heard about before. They were saying that the hospitals have to prepare for all of the people that will be coming in to them on Thanksgiving. Way to ruin the fun, news people. Who wants to hear that they are a statistic in getting hurt on the holiday? They said the numbers of people coming in from burns go way up, and that choking is a pretty common thing around this time of year as well. Also, that elderly are more likely to slip on most years but this year that wont be a problem because there will be no snow. Well there’s a little good news. So, everyone out there, be careful. Check your turkey for bones before you eat it in one gian bite, and don’t light your kids on fire. Just be careful and make sure your holidays are safe!

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Traveling for Thanksgiving is not something everyone will be doing this year. The gas prices are soaring again and the plane tickets are overly priced. I tried to get the money together just to travel to Oklahoma and back and with the gas to get down there and the gas to drive around up there and then get back the dollar signs were soon getting larger than they had been.  I tried to make a budget to get to Oklahoma and back and use it to the best of my ability but the budget was beginning to bust. I don’t understand why I was the one nominated since the family in Oklahoma has no issues with money. So I tried to re do the budget and still get up there but the harder I try to stretch our money just for gas to get up there it still isn’t working. We would still have to get a motel to stay somewhere and have food for the entire weekend. I tried explaining this to my husband and of course he wants me to find a way because it is his family. I don’t understand why he isn’t getting the fact that a dollar can only stretch so far. However my budget revision will continue the rest of the night until tomorrow morning and we will decide Thanksgiving Eve whether we will be going or not

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Every year for Thanksgiving we do the same thing. We all get together at my Grandma’s house in Dumas, set out the big table, and eat the huge meal. Every year we set out the big table with a big paper table cloth, and then we get out the crayons and color around our placemats. Now, the youngest grandkid now is 18, but that doesn’t stop us from drawing all over the table with crayons. My mom makes the stuffing and mashed potatoes every year, my aunt does the green bean casserole, my grandma does the turkey, everyone has their own jobs each year and it’s just always been that way. I love that we keep things the same, and that after all the years it’s still just perfect. I love going home for Thanksgiving, I get excited about it weeks in advance because we all know poor college kids just don’t get awesome home cooked meals all the time. I try to eat an entire semester’s worth of food when I’m there, and sometimes I swear I can pull it off. Sometimes we talk about trying new things, like I always hear about people who fry their turkeys. We had talked about trying this sometime, so for all I know our tradition is changed this year and I’m going home to a new modern fried turkey Thanksgiving and I don’t even know it yet. Either way, as long as the fixings are there, my family is there, and we get to spend the day together, I really don’t think the turkey is going to change it. Unless we burn it or set the house on fire. Yay Thanksgiving!

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Here lately I have been craving some outside time. I want to go to the lake and do some fishing before it gets too cold, or I want to just go camping out somewhere pretty. Derek is going to McLean next week for Thanksgiving and he gets to go hunting while he’s there. I am hoping that while I am home for the holidays we at least go out and shoot or do something fun like that. I just know that when the weather starts to freeze I am going to miss being outside or at the lake or camping and I want to get some kind of fun outside trip in before it’s too late! Maybe I can convince my dad that we need to go fishing at the lake before Thanksgiving, because I know that he took off the week for vacation and he’s going to be hanging around the house. I assume they are going to watch to try and go shopping for black Friday this year and I’d really rather opt out of that and do something fun, and I bet it wouldn’t be hard to get my brother and dad to go with me because I know they would rather do something like that than be trapped in the mall with a million people going crazy. Or, maybe I’ll just have to set up a tent in my backyard with my dogs. That’s kind of roughing it. I’ll get to see the stars outside and some wild animals outside of my tent. That is going to be my last choice though for sure.

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Thanksgiving is soo soon, I can almost taste the turkey. I have been living away from home for five years, and I still get so excited to get to go home and have “home cooked food”, which makes it sound like I can’t take care of myself. But this food is different. My family makes food that I cannot make, just like if my mom makes me a sandwich or gets me a coke it will taste better. This is one of my favorite holidays, because its main basis is food. That’s why we get together, because we want to eat. There is no Independence, no president we have to thank, nothing, just food. All about food. Best holiday ever. Well, and sharing and all that, but it’s sharing FOOD. So, I can’t wait for about a week from now, because there is going to be so much fun stuff going on and right now I don’t have much. Food, family, new movies are going to premier (not naming any names), and just the fall. It’s just one of those holidays that is stress free and make everyone happy to be together. It’s not about spending money and stress, but just about cooking some food and having some fun. And, after Thanksgiving comes my real favorite holiday, Christmas. I get to start celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. I start decorating and singing. I get out my tiny little tree and decorate it. Or, the holiday that everyone stresses themselves out about.

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Thanksgiving is coming up and I’m none too pleased. Thanksgiving used to be fun when we were a big family growing up. My mom’s the oldest of 6 girls and I’m the oldest of 10 cousins so when I say big family, I mean big family. It used to be a blast when we would all get together and catch up. Most of my aunts and uncles live in the Houston area along with my mom’s dad so most of the time, we’d head down there. Everyone would take turns helping to cook and get things ready. Certain families would get assigned certain dishes or desserts to bring. It was the good ‘ol tyipcal Thanksgiving dinner like in the movies. As we grew up, my mom and her sisters started getting into arguments here and there and because of this one would often not speak to another for months. It made getting together for family functions difficult and awkward. The cousins were growing up with school activities and social schedules of their own so that was also a contributing factor in the extinction of family Thanksgivings. Now I sometimes don’t even get to see my immediate family members on the holidays. I guess that’s what happens when you get married and have kiddos. Your holidays are split between the new family you’ve created, your husband’s family, your family and things can get kind of hectic. It sometimes makes me wish I was 7 again.

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