By Cathy Shan (’23)

Now that Halloween is finally over, we can now move on to America’s 2nd most anticipated holiday: Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is a somewhat magical holiday, from the smell of pumpkin spice wafting through the year to knowing that you get at least 3 days off of work or school. Most families celebrate Thanksgiving with old traditions, such as eating the traditional Thanksgiving meal, fighting with your siblings (or possibly even relatives) about who gets the largest piece of turkey, and other delightful customs. Today, I’m here to tell you 3 amazing ways to spice up your family’s Thanksgiving this year.

• Plan a Thanksgiving Trip

For those of you who live in Michigan or any part of the Midwestern region, there’s an 85 to 90% chance that it’s snowing right now. Instead of having a white Thanksgiving, take your family on vacation! Escape the snow! This allows you to spend more time with your family in a (hopefully) sunnier place. Your family could travel to a variety of places, from different cities, different states, or even different countries! 

If you want to be extremely classy, you could book your Thanksgiving dinner on a cruise ship or a resort. No matter where you go, you still get to make precious Thanksgiving memories with your family and friends.

• Make a Thankfulness Tree

Think of this as the Thanksgiving version of a Christmas tree, except it’s more personalized! Making a Thankfulness tree is simple, all you need are several cutout leaves (the number depends on how big your family is) and a couple of bare branches (you can also fashion branches out of brown paper). During Thanksgiving, family members can write what they are thankful for on the leaf cutouts. For instance, you could write, ‘I’m thankful for the kindness my family shows me.’ or even ‘I’m thankful that my brother’s helped me get 1st place in all of my Mario Kart races’. It shows your appreciation for others and it’s an extremely fun craft to do.

• Sign up for Turkey Trot

For those of you who don’t know what Turkey Trot is, Turkey Trot is a marathon held before Thanksgiving. Some of you may be wondering, ‘Cathy, why would you tell me to run a marathon for fun? Are you insane?’ Turkey Trot is an amazing event to participate in for several reasons: A. You get to bond with other people running the marathon. B. You have the opportunity to lose several calories before the Thanksgiving feast (the feast is when you get all of your calories back). C. Exercise is important! D. You get bragging rights. You now have the ability to tell people you ran a 26.2 mile marathon and lived to tell the tale. 

And there you have it! 3 fantastic ways to make your Thanksgiving more interesting. Be sure to enjoy and cherish your Thanksgiving with your friends and family, no matter how annoying they may be. Happy Thanksgiving!