Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions?

I like yours better!

We used to go out for a hike in a park after dinner and then come home and have dessert.

We do have some special china we use. Not expensive, Mom collected them in the ‘50’s using trading stamps. But they are very special to us.

We used to show off our new boy/girl friends over for meals.

1. I drive to Wisconsin (from Connecticut), so that I can bring Willow with me. (That’s a long day of driving, but I actually sort of look forward to it, because I know the country so well now that I can drive most of the route blindfolded. This year I might actually try that. I tried doing a long cross-country drive in my sleep once, but that didn’t go so well.)
2 I visit my daughter in Madison to see what new and amazing changes she has wrought with her 5-year-old food cart and catering business there. (And have some of her kitchen manager’s wonderful pork chile verde.)
3. The day before Thanksgiving I drive farther north to visit my sister and her family, and spend time there – and that’s where we all gather for Thanksgiving dinner.
4. At some point in the weekend I will school my daughter and my sister (with nominal assistance – by his own admission) from my sister’s partner on how to play and win at Scrabble. (But my daughter is a fierce competitor, and one of these days she will beat me / us for sure, because she plays the game like a warrior. Like a warrior who knows all of the two-letter words you can make in the game, every word that can be made with a Q and no U, and so forth. I rely upon words that they don’t believe are real, tempt them to challenge, and then lose a turn for the failed challenge, whereupon I start to run up the score. And I’m not above bluffing with made-up words after that point. It’s called gamesmanship.)
5. When we are all sufficiently lubricated and playful, or when my sister just wants to get back at me for winning at Scrabble (again!), then we play What If …

You can’t do Thanksgiving with us unless you have a big appetite, a love of pies, a head for Scrabble and a great sense of humor. (From time to time during What If a thick skin is also required, if I’m being honest.)

6. Lately, we’ve started to binge-watch Shark Tank.
7. I’ve been trying to make my homemade baked beans an annual tradition for Thanksgiving dinner, and I may have succeeded. Last year I sort of gave up, and my sister asked me as we started laying out the meal, “Where are the beans this year?” So, maybe I’ll do them again. Or maybe I’ll just bring tzatziki. I’m a big fan of cultural appropriation. I have tzatziki on my burritos all the time.
8. Or maybe I’ll just bring Cards Against Humanity this year and start a new tradition. We played it earlier this year on the schooner cruise, and that was a big hit even with some of the older folks. I think my sister would be horrified … and totally love it.

@CWOTUS Take me, take me! (As long as we don’t talk politics.)

Not on your life, @janbb! You’re too literate, and with you on my sister / daughter’s team (it’s always boys against girls; it’s how we roll that game) – and especially since I’ve told you one of my primary strategies! – then they might stand a chance of winning. And my winning at Scrabble is, now that I think on’t, a cherished family tradition.

Aside from that, my sister is conservative, her partner is more conservative, and I argue politics with them during Thanksgiving.

Oy vey – maybe just send the beans and the pies and Willow my way. But I would enjoy the Scrabble.

We always had clam dip and Fritos for an appetizer. Once at Thanksgiving at my sister’s, a guest’s very active infant launched himself into the giant bowl of clam dip. He had clam dip even on his eyelashes.