SOOO FULL I Can Barely Move

Before I start, I want to mention that this is my last post of the semester. I really enjoyed sharing my traditions as well as learning some of my friends traditions throughout the semester and I hope you enjoyed reading them. I will be writing a blog next semester too but probably not this one as I have discussed most of the major holidays. However, I hope you follow along for that blog too.

So, now on to my last post which is about one of my favorite holidays and the one you all of you in college can't wait for so you can leave, Thanksgiving. (If you call it Turkey Day I will probably threaten you, just ask my friends.)

This week, I decided to complete the cycle of my blog and talk just about my Thanksgiving traditions this week since there is a lot to them. However, PLEASE share your traditions in the comments!

Leading up to Thanksgiving, my family puts bags on our neighbors' mailboxes for our neighborhood food drive. Then we help the day of by collecting bags at the club house to give the people running the event a break and help load the truck. I love seeing our neighbors come together to help people they don't know and probably never will know.

For Thanksgiving itself my dad and I are the ones that cook and my mom and brother clean the house and set the table.

My dad and I plan out our menu in depth after looking at different recipes online. Then we look around our house to see what we have and whatever we are missing we then go shopping for on Monday or Tuesday. We tend to start cooking Wednesday afternoon and evening because we always have lots of dishes of large quantities to make.

Thursday, we wake up pretty early and watch the NYC Macy's Day parade while we cook. We also switch to the Philadelphia parade to watch my high school band march in the parade. This year my brother will be playing saxophone in the marching band to help welcome Santa in. Once the parade is over we watch the annual dog show, all the while cooking in the kitchen.

Photo By: Ricky Brigante

My favorite dish to make is our double baked sweet potatoes. To make the sweet potatoes, we make the potatoes and then let them cool slightly. The then potatoes are cut in half and my dad and I scoop out the inside leaving a little "flesh" of the potato on the skin so it is like a boat. The inside of the potatoes all goes into one big bowl. Then, we add heavy cream, nutmeg, and a few other ingredients to the bowl and mash it all up. Then, we refill the potato skin boats with the sweet potato filling . Once all the skins are filled and on a pan we cover them in marshmallows and bake them for a second time. These sweet potatoes are everyone's favorite. My one cousin has threatened to not show up unless we have the potatoes.

Photo By: Mike Mozart

Speaking of who comes on Thanksgiving, our guests normally include my immediate family and my cousins and their son. This year my other cousin and his daughters will be joining us. No matter how many or how few people we have for Thanksgiving my dad and I cook as though we have an army coming.

One year we had lots of leftovers so the next day we invited some family friends over for dessert. My dad and I had put lots of time into dessert that year and had made a 7 layer death by chocolate cake. Each level was chocolate and it was very rich. In fact, it was so rich that after eating some our friend needed to get some fresh air to clear his head, I certainly didn't blame him. However, this was my favorite dessert we made because of how much work went into it; it really became something to be proud of.

Very Similar Photo and Recipe to this cake by: The Slow Roasted Italian

At some point during the day in my house, we normally watch the Eagles game whether it be before dinner, between dinner and dessert or after dessert. Since my cousins are huge Eagles fans this is always fun. My brother, cousin and I also have a tradition of going in the basement after dinner and before dessert and creating a haunted house. While super cheesy, and often not to great, we make our mothers go through them and if we are lucky the dads. My mom said she expects us to do it must years until we have kids of our own to do it to us.

Overall, Thanksgiving is a time to eat great food- cranberry sauce is my favorite- and spend time with some family you don't get to see all the time. One last thing we do every year is go around the table and say what we are thankful for that year. I think this is a wonderful tradition to take a break from our lives and be thankful for those around us and remember who is there for us.

The year Hanukkah and Thanksgiving overlapped

So, what do you do on Thanksgiving and what is your favorite Thanksgiving food?