By Braden Ochs | Echo
Many Thanksgiving traditions carry over from year to year, but there's also room to experiment with new ideas. Here are some fun things to try at this year's Thanksgiving feast:
1. Write a sonnet
When your family sits around the fancy table and asks what you are thankful for, how impressed would they be if you had prepared a "Thanksgiving Sonnet" beforehand? If all goes well, you might even see a few tears glisten in the corner of your uncle's eye. What a way to impact your family!
2. Contribute food
Not everyone can write a sonnet, so if you are an unpoetic person, just bring food! If you can't cook well, bring ramen noodles or something. I'm sure the feast planners will appreciate, and even be impressed, with anything as long as it's edible. At the very least, bring a two-liter of pop.
3. Train hard for flag football
For those football-on-Thanksgiving people, try to become the best flag football player in the family. Impress your cousins with some sick moves, and lead your team to victory in every game (be friendly about it, of course). By the time break is over, you'll be good enough to try out for Taylor's football team. Why not even try out for the NFL? With enough hard work and the right kind of turkey meat, anything is possible.
4. Find ways to eat more
First of all, try to wear pants with a stretchy waist. This gives your stomach some room to grow. An even better method would be to not eat the whole day leading up to the meal of the year. One or two fruit snacks would be acceptable, but anything you eat before the meal takes away from what you can enjoy during it! So, whatever route works best for you, make sure to find successful ways to eat more delicious Thanksgiving food.
5. Watch good Thanksgiving TV
Not everyone knows the best shows to watch on Thanksgiving. Besides the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, there is "Punkin Chunkin," the National Dog Show, and the classic "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." "Punkin Chunkin" will give you the inspiration to impact the world with well-engineered machines (or to launch pumpkins, which is cool too). The National Dog Show lets us fight with family members to find out who can name the most dog breeds. And of course, "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" reminds us of the true meaning of the holiday.
6. Tell Thanksgiving ghost stories
Tell stories about the most famous Thanksgiving ghosts. There are many to choose from: the Gravy Growler, the not-so-sweet Potato Screamer, the Ham Howler and of course, the Hash-Slinging Slasher. Since this may be more of a Halloween thing, just keep this idea as a backup plan in case Grandma's gets awkward.
7. Talk to your family
Don't just ask them about the weather. Ask them about their lives. Ask them which of your grandma's pies is the best. Talking can be hard, but you never know, a single conversation could change your whole Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday for a lot of people, but there are always new traditions to try and better ways to prepare for this family holiday.
