Family Traditions

So Thanksgiving is coming up and every year my family pack up the car the day before and heads out to our family farm in Edenton, NC.

Well now I'm here and I keep thinking about how this year, like every year is going to be the same. Unlike the years in the past though, it is going to be very very different. Every year my mom's whole family (all 21 of us) have packed ourselves into the tiny farm house to enjoy a late Thanksgiving lunch! We have so much fun laughing and eating and talking despite the fact that we barely have any room to breathe. After lunch my family packs up the car and heads down to Kill Devil Hills to eat Thanksgiving dinner with my Dad's parents! At the beach we eat a traditional meal and then I stay up ALL night so that I can hit the outlets for a little bit of Black Friday shopping (my favorite shopping spree of the year).

This year is going to be different though. Nothing about the traditional routine will change. We will still go to the farm (already there) and we will still go to the beach. The only difference is the farm house. We renovated last year and the house doesn't look anything like it did before. My grandma, CC, at the beach is also not making her traditional Thanksgiving meal. Instead she is making Brunswick stew. It will be weird but I am ready to embrace the weird. 

Anyway, I love what my family does on Thanksgiving. It is so much fun getting to spend time with both families for this holiday, it is the only holiday that we get to do that for! I love getting to see all of cousins and spending time in two of my favorite places: Edenton and Kill Devil Hills! 

In Edenton everyone in the family bring a different dish and it is very much like a potluck. We have salted ham and oven roasted turkey, squash casserole, sweet potato casserole, mac&cheese, rolls, succotash, snap beans and more. We also have my Uncle Joe's "famous" sweet tea and an abundance of desserts (none of which are pumpkin pie). It is so much fun and very nontraditional, which is okay because it completely fits that side of the family!

Our Thanksgiving in Kill Devil Hills is so different in comparison to the one in Edenton! It is usually much more traditional with everyone dressed up all nice and the traditional turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and, of course, pumpkin pie! It is so different from the Thanksgiving at the farm but it is just as fun! Even with the change I am sure.

This is just one of my families crazy traditions and I love it!