It’s pretty easy to imagine a Thanksgiving dinner for most. The thoughts of a long table, surrounded by your family with a turkey, fresh out of the oven resting on the table. Cranberry sauce, salad and dressing, stuffing and other delicious goodies sitting on the table for you to devour. You can even have a slice of apple pie if you can stomach it after the main feast. But that’s not exactly the case for all students.
In a school like Olympia and especially in the United States, traditions for the holidays, if your family even celebrates them, are different as much as they are similar. Each family has their own traditions that make it special to their family. As for Micheal Pearl, English and AP Literature teacher, his family loves the delicious flans (baked custard dessert) he makes for them.
“I usually make a flan,so that [has] became a tradition over the years. They’ll ask me to make a pecan flan,” Mr. Pearl stated.
Flans, while typically enjoyed as a Spanish cuisine, traces back to the Roman Empire, who created it in the middle of an egg surplus in the city. As time went on, the desert evolved into more of a sweet treat, customized with all sorts of flavors to spice things up. Some included coffee, mango and pumpkin.
Mr. Pearl’s brother is also particularly known in his family for his fried turkeys, another running tradition in the family and a lesson on fire safety. “You take this huge fryer and just dump the turkey in there,” Mr. Pearl clarified. “It’s a huge fire hazard, you could dump the turkey too fast, then the oil spills out, and a fire starts.” He adds that if you look on social media, you’ll see fire departments teaching and telling people how to stay safe over the holidays.
Sophomore Cohen Thurston’s Thanksgiving traditions with family also seems to be full of life, with specific foods and a big family.
“Every year, we make this quiche pie, and that’s been in my family for two generations,” Thurston stated. “We all meet at my dad’s house, seven siblings, both parents and grandparents. I also have a lot of cousins.” Mentioning his plans to pass down the family traditions that made up the years of his life and keep them alive.
For Mr. Pearl, he plans to leave the work to his brothers, both happily married with a couple of kids each. When one of them hosts Thanksgiving, another tradition, it’s fifteen people all coming together to celebrate.
“Obviously, since we don’t all live at home anymore, we take turns hosting.” He specifies. “We usually go to one of my brother’s, and watch some of the football games.” Mr. Pearl said.
