Amanda Levine
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Tradition, Tradition!

11/22/2014

5 Comments

 
It's officially cold. Really cold. Not just put-on-a-sweater cold, but pull-out-your-boots,-gloves-and-hats cold. While we are lamenting the bygone days of flip flops and sunscreen, no one can deny the excitement of the winter holidays and the spirit we all feel as we try to chase away the cold. Of course, the holiday season begins with my favorite holiday of all; Thanksgiving. 

I love everything about Thanksgiving - that we spend the weekend with our family, that's it's only one day, that's it's only one meal... Another thing I love about Thanksgiving, which, I love about all of our holidays, is how we cement and create family memories. We bring out favorite recipes and various relatives' china. As we sit down to our meal, we reminisce about Grandma's turkey recipe, or Bubbie's china. We feel our relatives are with us in the room as we enjoy our Thanksgiving.

In school, we have been learning about basic needs (food/water, shelter, and clothing). We have also been studying culture, which we defined as the things a group of people do/make after they've satisfied their basic needs. We are studying Native American tribes and understanding how adding beads to a deerskin dress or painting a pot with beautiful designs can define the culture of a specific tribe. So too, the customs and traditions of our holidays define the culture of our individual families.

What are your favorite family customs? What holiday traditions do you look forward to? 


Add your comment below. I would love to use these blog comments as the basis for a class discussion.
5 Comments
Hannah
11/23/2014 11:39:55 am

The night before Thanksgiving, my sisters and I sleep over Bubby and Zay Zay's house so that Mommy and Daddy can get ready for Thanksgiving. In the morning, we watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We make turkeys out of our hands and play games with Bubby and Zay Zay. Then in the afternoon, we go home and celebrate Thanksgiving with our whole family!

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Marissa (Hannah's sister)
11/23/2014 11:45:56 am

I love watching the parade too with my sisters and my Bubby and Zay Zay.

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Alicia and Neil (Hannah's parents)
11/23/2014 11:55:43 am

Thanksgiving is a very special holiday for us because we host at our house. Even with our lists, we tend to be back and forth to various supermarkets a few times before Thanksgiving day. It feels like we cook for days, but we love every minute of it!

During the year, we make challah every week for Shabbat. For Thanksgiving, we make extra challah and use some of it for rolls for dinner and some of it to make the stuffing. The girls love to help and braid the challah.

A tradition we have is also making some sort of edible name tags to show people where they are sitting. We have made turkeys out of Rice Krispie Treats, Oreos and apples. Every year, everyone looks forward to finding their place at the table and then eating their candy turkeys.

On the actual day, family comes over in the afternoon and we eat and eat and eat - appetizers in the afternoon and dinner later on. We break out the good china and enjoy the meal.

A fun memory that we reminisce about every year is the fact that this week was when we got engaged - back in 2003. As we write this, we are retelling the story to the kids right now. :)

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Jessica link
11/25/2014 10:37:27 am

My Thanksgiving tradition is we always go to Philadelphia to see my dad's side of the family. I play with my cousins and sometimes we do sleepovers. The past few years Thanksgiving was held at our family day camp and we all got to play in the gym with scooters and balls. This year it's at my cousin's house because they just moved there and it has a lot of space.

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Oscar link
12/8/2014 08:04:58 am

I love the way my Poppop cook's the turkey! He is a great cook. I really like when we talk about what we are thankful for. I usually say a lot of things. Thanksgiving is nice, I just wish there were more kids to play with sometimes.

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    Amanda Levine

    I am headed back to my roots this year. I'll be teaching 4th grade again. Of my 18 years in the classroom, 12 of them have been have been in 4th grade. Now I'm back. 

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