From strange foods at the table to games before the big meal, Thanksgiving has many different forms of tradition. Students in Warsaw High especially have a few traditions to share.

  “All of my cousins come to my house and they play on my dad’s school bus or piano. It’s become a tradition only because they do it every single year,” freshman Alli Thomas said. “Also orange salad. It’s a weird thing we eat on every Thanksgiving.”

  However, not everybody gets to host their own Thanksgiving feast. Some students plan to travel.

  “On a normal Thanksgiving, we go to the city with all of the family and go to one house, usually my aunt’s, to have dinner. Then we go to my grandpa’s sister’s house to have a big bonfire. We sit around, reminisce, stay the night, then come home and have another gathering with neighbors and friends,” sophomore Jagger Stevenson said. “This tradition started about four or five years ago. Since we have more friends down here now, coming back from the city to have our own Thanksgiving party is a more recent tradition.”

  With the country-wide Black Friday sales also landing on the same day, some students plan to buy more than just food for the holiday.

  “We go to Kansas City and get my uncle and cousin then just come back to eat and go Black Friday shopping,” junior Anthony Beuke said. “It’s a tradition that’s just always been there.”

  “I go to Overland Park, stay the night with cousins, then go Black Friday shopping,”  senior Cassie Pittman said. “This tradition started with my aunt. As she got older, everyone wanted to spend more time with her.”

  Although, some students prefer to stick with more laid back, simple traditions.

  “Every Thanksgiving we go to my grandma’s house and watch football,” freshman Tyler Kirk said, “The tradition’s been around since I was, like two.”

  “We always make a specific type of dish every year that my grandma made. It’s for a side dish that consisted of handmade noodles boiled in chicken broth. Very tasty. We still make it to honor her,” junior Nathan Townley said. “Considering my birthday lands on Thanksgiving every so often, the normal traditions do kind of change for that. Still, we always keep my grandma’s recipe.”

Junior Haleigh Kennedy says her Thanksgiving traditions have changed since the death of her great-grandpa.

  The family would gather at his home in Ballard at the home of her great-grandparents, who raised chickens and turkeys. They would all gather under a tree to watch him butcher the Thanksgiving turkey.

  “He would be covered in blood,” she said.

  Since his death in 2010, the family does not get turkeys quite so fresh.