Happy Thanksgiving! Whether it be cooking the perfect turkey or playing a game with your family, we all have traditions that become a holiday staple this time of year. This month, the all staff blog question is: What is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?
My mom always makes a chocolate pecan pie, and it’s the best.
- Gabriela Schulman, Artistic and Casting Apprentice
Eating. Duh.
- Rebecca Dzida, Community Engagement and Touring Coordinator
My favorite Thanksgiving tradition is playing Boggle after the second round of food!
- Vern Reske, Production Management Apprentice
My favorite tradition is playing board games once everyone wakes up from food naps.
- Savannah Gomez, Costume Apprentice
Thanksgiving in my family has always been about friends over family. I've used the term Chosen Family for a long time to indicate the people who are not blood related to me but are in the truest sense my family. My favorite Thanksgiving tradition is using a holiday to create space and time for those chosen family members. It's not about being able to get home or about food, it's about the effort and time we make for the people who are most important to us. Taking in strays who would otherwise be alone and making sure that everyone has a place to go. In the holiday season it's not how every year is the same, it's how you make every year a little better for yourself and for those around you.
- Sarah Splaine, Deck Chief and Shop Foreman
My favorite Thanksgiving tradition is running a Turkey Trot! I won’t be running one this year because of a strained hip flexor, but I ran last year in Greensboro, North Carolina.
- Caitlin O’Brien, Costume Apprentice
My favorite part of Thanksgiving is a little atypical when you think of traditional Thanksgiving activities. While my family does participate in the traditional dinner with family, we also have been guests at a neighbor's Thanksgiving brunch for as long as I can remember. At about 9am Thanksgiving morning, the festivities begin down the street with all your favorite breakfast foods, mimosas, bloody marys, and omlettes made to order by our consummate hostess. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV eventually transitions into football, which is then emulated outside by the more active guests. The more sedentary sit by a fire burning in the outdoor patio chiminea, enjoying the show. It was fun when my sister and I were kids, because we got to hang out with our neighborhood friends before either welcoming family over, or piling into the car and driving out to the official Thanksgiving dinner. The tradition continues to be my favorite because it brings together friends from out of town, many of whom I now only see once a year. We get to catch up and have a good time before we our individual family activities begin. It reminds me to be thankful for the friendships too, on a day that traditionally can be all about family.
- Wes Meekins, Associate Director of Development
The day after Thanksgiving, my mom sets out her 67 Santa statues.
- Sarah Kiker, Dramaturgy Apprentice
We eat Thanksgiving lunch instead of Thanksgiving dinner. We spend the morning cooking, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and drinking apple cider mimosas.
- Kristina Erwin, Assistant Director of Marketing
My birthday falls around Thanksgiving every year and so after dinner, my family usually has ice cream cake to celebrate. This year, the apprentices made a cornbread cake with mashed potato icing and cranberry sauce on top. It sounds weird, but it was very good and so I am thinking about making it again in the future.
- Meredith Beisel, Marketing and Development Apprentice
My favorite Thanksgiving tradition is running in a local race on Thanksgiving morning before eating a weeks worth of calories. Below is a photo of my son from last year’s race. It was freezing, which helped us run faster. We are traveling this year so I won’t run a race, but I do plan on running a 5k distance on my own!
- Debbie Ellinghaus, Managing Director
One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions is that my mother-in-law makes her stuffing in muffin tins to create what we affectionately call “stuffins.” They are the perfect portion of stuffing and when there are various food allergies or picky eaters to deal with (like my brother-in-law who won’t eat mushrooms) it makes it easier to segregate the different options. And while it has never happened, the stuffins make an excellent projectile should one need to defend themselves.
- Joshua Ford, Director of Marketing and Communications
