Families look forward to Thanksgiving traditions

MAT-SU — Most Americans celebrate Thanksgiving by stuffing a turkey then stuffing themselves. There are many shared traditions, including a traditional family gathering and falling asleep during the football game.

What is considered traditional now to make Thanksgiving is a far cry from the historical account of the holiday’s origins. Kathleen Curtin, a food historian at Plimoth Plantation, reports online for the History Channel about what’s considered the first Thanksgiving celebration when Plymouth colonists joined Wampanoag Indians in 1621 to celebrate a successful harvest.

Although many believe turkey has always been a staple of the Thanksgiving feast, historians can only verify that wild birds and venison were included in one of the original celebrations, Curtin said. It is possible, though, that eels, swans, seal and plums were on the menu.

Now 386 years later, Mat-Su Valley families come to the dinner table with some of their own Thanksgiving traditions.

“Thanksgiving is all about family,” Skyler Baisch said. “You never seem to find the time to see your family, but it’s around these times of the year that you make time.”

Baisch said his family usually gathers at his mother’s or brother’s house for a Thanksgiving feast. Similar to many Thanksgiving diner tables, turkey is the main course at the Baisch home. Candied yams will also find a place on the table, but not without adding a fluffy white favorite on top. For Baisch, marshmallows are a must.

Although the meal might include typical holiday foods, there is one thing about this year’s Baisch Thanksgiving celebration that is a little more contemporary. Baisch, who had just clocked off a graveyard shift at Fred Meyer, searched through the toy aisle looking for a Thanksgiving gift for someone special.

“It’s my baby’s first Thanksgiving,” Baisch said. “I’m trying to make it extra special if it’s going to be her first.”

For the Joanne Young family of Wasilla, Thanksgiving is a day of leisure. That’s because her husband, Ken, does all the cooking.

“He doesn’t cook the rest of the year, but on Thanksgiving he cooks,” she said.

He goes all-out as well, baking pies and basting the holiday turkey with amaretto and butter.

Although Santa Claus might be confused by kids receiving gifts on Thanksgiving, he would likely be pleased with one of the traditions carried out by Wendy Stout and her family.

Every Thanksgiving the family begins its Christmas preparation, Stout said. Boxes are unpacked and decorations set in place a full month before Santa comes to town.

Not only does Stout use Thanksgiving as a catalyst to prepare for Christmas, she also uses it as a time find what has been missing during the rest of the year.

“It’s a time to catch up with family,” Stout said. “We’re always so busy, and it’s nice to finally have time to catch up.”

Christina Perkins revels in her family’s huge Thanksgivings, where cousins and uncles and aunts and siblings and all their children pack into her uncle’s house. Instead of a formal sit-down meal, Thanksgiving for their lot is buffet style. All the food is spread out and people graze throughout the day, she said.

“It’s crazy and I really like it,” she said. “I’m not the one having to get stuff done in the kitchen.”

There is one Thanksgiving mystery Perkins said she isn’t interested in solving. At some point during the day, all the men gravitate down to the basement. What happens in the basement stays in the basement.

“They all go downstairs and they may watch football, they may be checking out a new stereo system,” she said. “Sometimes there’s some booming coming up from down there, but we don’t really know what goes on down there.”

Sophia Tabios is new to the Valley and expects to spend her Thanksgiving hopping from place to place attending dinners and events in Wasilla and Anchorage.

“We have, like, 10 places to go to,” she said, adding her strategy may be to eat just a small portion at each stop.

Mona Connors said her Thanksgiving is one of typical contemporary American tradition. Family members come together, the turkey is prepared by mother and/or daughter and the men congregate in front of the television to watch football.

Over the last few years, the family has also tried to add church to its holiday to-do-list, Connors said. Along with turkey, football and church, Connors said it might be possible to start something new this holiday season.

“This year my son and his future wife are cooking dinner for us; that’s maybe the first of a new tradition,” she said.

Turkey, sweet potatoes and green bean casserole will most likely cover the dinner table at Connors’ Thanksgiving, she said.

“If it could look like a Norman Rockwell painting it would please me,” said Connors, adding many of Rockwell’s paintings strike her as ideal representations of American family life.

Contact Chris Gillow at chris.gillow@frontiersman.com or 352-2284.