“Thanksgiving Games” is the second of seven Thanksgiving articles received in fall of 2023 from Wayne High School students. Five of them were published in The Byway’s most recent November paper. All will be featured online.
My family has a ton of different Thanksgiving traditions.
When we have Thanksgiving with the Jacksons, we always play board games. We will stay up all night and play a whole bunch of different board games. These games ranged from card games like scum, all the way to Monopoly. We had a ton of games and whenever we see a new one we don’t have, we buy it. We play them every night. No matter what, we stay up late and play board games.
One time we were playing You’ve Got Crabs, which is pretty much this game where one collects pairs of crab cards to get points. The game got so heated and we were being pretty loud. It was the last crab to end the game and a team got accused of cheating. There was a lot of yelling back and forth and eventually we banned the game. We had to work our way up and prove that the game could be played again. Adults like to play board games too, and sometimes that’s why it gets so heated.
Sometimes we will just stay up late watching movies. Our family loves to watch movies and have seen a lot of them. We will watch two or three in one night. Other times, we will just all meet up at a house and talk. The little cousins always play outside or downstairs, but the adults will just sit and talk.
I also have some traditions with the Southwicks. My uncle loves Christmas, so every year he has this Christmas tree light up suit and he wears it to Thanksgiving dinner. I do not think there has been a single Thanksgiving where he hasn’t worn it. He likes to trick us and come to the house in his normal clothes, but once dinner time comes around he is always in that Christmas suit. We always laugh and make fun of him. It’s a tradition we always have.
We still play board games with the Southwicks, but there are a lot of little kids on this side of the family. So mainly adults play board games. It is still a tradition we do. The main type of games played are card games. Our two favorite games are Five Crowns and Rook.
When we are at my Grandma Southwicks we will always be munching on different snacks while we play. Most of the time those are little appetizers my grandma makes.
Sometimes my Grandma’s dad, my Great Grandpa Eddie, will come down for Thanksgiving. If he comes down, we will always have some kind of horse race on. He loves to watch horse races because he has a horse that races, that he likes to compare the race times to.
One time, we got all the dodgeballs out and played dodgeball. This is normally pretty fun because we have a lot of people and all of the kids can play. Of course some of the little, little kids don’t play, but most of the older kids play and we always have a lot of fun. We are a really competitive family so it is a ton of fun to go and play games with each other. I always look forward to going to my Grandma Southwicks because of the games we play.
Another time, we brought hoverboards to my grandma’s house, and let’s just say some of the cousins got pretty crazy with them. At one point the curtains got pulled down because of a hoverboard crash. But needless to say we had a lot of fun.
No matter what fights happen because of games, or how something bad might happen, we always find a way to make it fun and have the best time with each other. I think that is one of the most important Thanksgiving traditions: just finding a way to make everyone happy and have fun. I love spending time with family and I love how happy I am. Those are some of my thanksgiving traditions I have with my family.
– by Paizlee Jackson (10th) Wayne High School
Feature image caption: Flower unicorn likes to play with his friend Kysen turkey. He is friends with everyone. His favorite colors are pink and yellow. Flower unicorn will make silly faces to make you laugh. Courtesy of Layni S. (k) Escalante.
Read more about interesting Thanksgiving traditions that aren’t always what we expect in “A National Cheat Day” by Koyo Ito.