Feasting With Family

yes i like seeing family i havent seen in a while or never met last year there was a whole family get together

My family has always emphasized the importance of maintaining connections and spending quality time with each other above all else. As such, my family likes to throw large get-togethers for all occasions, complete with a variety of delicious homemade dishes from different cultures. Although there are so many get-togethers held throughout the year with the same people present, I never stop looking forward to them. The most memorable gathering for me is always the New Year's Eve party held to count down until the new year. My family makes a point to always try to outdo the previous New Year’s Eve party, with the most recent party including steak, lobster salad, alfredo pasta, cake, and one of our cultural Vietnamese cuisines, banh canh. In addition to cooking various, flavorful meals, my family also likes to celebrate the New Year with multiple confetti cannons, New Year’s hat props, and large blow-up balloons for the sole purpose of letting each family member take photos with them. I think my family’s affinity for taking photos to commemorate each moment is a little different from other families, seeing as our family photoshoots during the New Year's Eve party usually run for two hours. But, despite the number of times I’ve rolled my eyes whenever a camera was pulled out to capture every small detail of the party, I always let out a small smile at the permanent records capturing the genuine, close-knit connections present at each and every one of our family gatherings.

Large gatherings do play a part in my family traditions as my extended family gathers at my grandparent’s house on major holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. I always enjoy them as they are a chance to eat, listen to music, play games, and catch up with relatives. However, my most memorable gathering was family reunions in Hawaii that my mom’s side of the family used to have every few years. The kids would play games, there would be raffles, crafts, music, and speeches given by different relatives. Most importantly, there was often a blend of Hawaiian and Japanese food that was both catered and home made by various families. Common dishes included kalua pork, tonkatsu, and mac salad. Everyone ate, laughed, and caught up with one another, especially during meal time. It was a chance to connect with family members that you had never met before and for the older generations to reconcile. Evidently, the food served as a bridge of connection between families that were separated by an ocean (those living in Hawaii and those on the mainland).

I really enjoy family gatherings and I don’t find them overwhelming. It’s always fun to get together with family and be able to spend time with everyone. Also, I see my family pretty frequently because everyone lives relatively close to each other. We always try to get together for dinner or just to hang out whether it's for a holiday celebration or if we’re getting together to celebrate birthdays. One of my most memorable family gatherings is when we go to my grandpa’s sister's house on Christmas Eve and we spend the afternoon and night with the family. We all eat dinner together and sing Christmas songs in the living room and all of the cousins act out the Christmas nativity. This tradition is special to me because it is a time when I am able to celebrate a special holiday with my family and I can spend time with them. There aren’t any rituals that we do as a family that seem old or outdated, everything that we do together is fun and it brings everyone together and makes us all feel connected. I have not been a part of creating a new family tradition.

Gatherings with extended family members have never been a huge thing for me and my immediate family. The last time we had a gathering significantly huge was for Easter when I was around 12 years old. There are quite a few tensions with my dad and his family members so it might explain why these gatherings don't frequently happen, plus my mothers family lives on the other side of the earth. I don't particularly care that my family is excluded from these holiday "get together's". I enjoy being in the comfort of my own home where I don't feel like my every move is being scrutinized. One of my favorite memories from our (my immediate family) holiday gathering was Christmas day when I was around 14 years old. That Christmas my mom wanted duck and so I cooked one. There were a few errors in my execution of cooking this duck, one being too small of a pan for example. To make the story short, the duck fat leaked onto the bottom of the oven and our whole oven caught on fire. Thinking back now all I had to do to put out the fire was take the duck out of the oven but instead of doing that I ran to my dad for help. I find this funny because our next big holiday (thanksgiving), my dad started a fire in his room while we were setting the table. I remember my two cats running out his door while the flames were burning high. It seemed we made the tradition of starting fires on every holiday.

My favorite holiday of the year quickly became Christmas. I can still taste the chocolate chip cookies, turkey, pasta salad, and hot chocolate that my aunt would make. But the Christmas enthusiasm would just evaporate as I got older. I'm currently 17 years old, thus this would be my final year as a child. However, I wouldn't mind spending Christmas Day alone with my mother or with the rest of my family. I observed that as I grew older, my family would get smaller and smaller—not because of problems within the family, but rather because everyone simply aged and relocated to another state or nation. I understand that I just want more space, more independence, and more isolation. But I do miss spending time with my cousins, especially the ones I don’t get to see that often. A memorable gathering I remember was when my mom was surprised with a 60-inch tv, I could just feel my adrenaline and excitement rush, acting like that gift was meant for me. Later in the day I and my cousins had a sleepover and we stayed up all night watching horror movies and later on comedy shows to stop the anxiousness. We got up to get breakfast and later on went ice skating, I truly loved my Christmas experience when I was 12 years old. Sincerely hope that I regain the Christmas spirit and the happiness I once experienced as a young child who was just concerned about the gifts she would receive this year.

Pumpkin pie, Christmas cookies, barbeque chicken and pasta salad fill the table as my family of 10 sits down for the holiday’s. It doesn't matter which holiday it is, one of those 4 dishes has to be on the table. If not, I know something is wrong. For my family, we have dinner together almost every weekend. All of my family lives 5-30 minutes away so family dinners are kind of the norm. Since they are so common, let me take you through one. 2 o’clock is when they start, but nana and papa think that means 1:15. As everyone else arrives between 2 and 2:30 the men get started on the grilling while the ladies start on the entrees or ENTREEEEES as nana calls them. Once all the sides and main courses have been prepared, go to our “assigned” table. Men in the living room to watch football, women in the dining room catching up on all the recent sales Kohls or Belk is having, and lastly the kids table in the kitchen where we plan the next family game. We then put our dishes away and end the night by playing a game of cards. The thing I love most about the related article is the section where Dr. Dunbar went into detail about the benefits of social eating and how it makes us closer. They say that it can trigger a lot of things that make us want to sing, dance, and tell stories. The story telling made me super excited because I love hearing stories about how everyone grew up since times change year by year. Every Saturday or Sunday meal with them feels like a holiday to me!

To be completely honest, I don't look forward to anything with my family anymore. My family has gone through a lot of stuff and we are kind of split up into two different groups. Family is supposed to be a loving and supporting group of people but that is just not the case for my family. My family also lives in Kansas, where I was born, and I was forced to move therefor I don't really have any connection with any of them anymore.

To me, family time is the best time. I appreciate any chance I get to see my family because the chance does not come often. Since both of my parents are foreigners, most of my extended family lives halfway across the world, which means I don't get to see them very often. Christmas time is always our time to get together. We all get together down at my grandmother's house (she is actually my great aunt, but for the purpose of this comment, I will call her my grandmother) down in Florida. There's usually about 20 of us total, and we split up among the two houses we have down there. One of the traditions we have in my family is holy taco night on Christmas eve. We start dinner around 6:30 starting with my aunt's famous salsa followed by tacos for dinner and key lime pie for desert. A Christmas movie goes on the TV around 10, and we stay up and watch it until at least midnight, just so that we can say merry Christmas before going to sleep. On Christmas day, we wake up early, eat waffles for breakfast. and open presents. We spend the rest of the day prepping for dinner which is alway thanksgiving since we can never get together to do thanksgiving dinner on actual thanksgiving. These are some of the things that my family does together around the holidays. We always enjoy every moment that we are together because we so rarely get to see each other. Though our traditions may not seem like much, they are ours and are very special to my family.

I personally wouldn’t care if it was just my siblings and my mother eating or if it was my seven aunts, three cousins, grandfather, and my two uncles getting together to eat food and to bond. The way we typically go about a day filled with food or cooking is, the kids will go either outside on the porch;the upstairs room; or the den and watch television. We typically fall asleep after playing around and rough housing with each other then wake up about 30 minutes prior to food being served. We then all gather around the table say our prayer and we stuff our faces. While eating the older kids tell fun memories of things that they enjoyed beyond belief and the older generation tells stories of growing up in Maryland and catching the train for everything. We then learn a few things about our family that we never knew and vise versa for the older generation for us. In the article Professor Robert Dunbar from Oxford states that “They help us build community, and create or strengthen relationships with family and friends” which I can’t help but agree with. When it comes to people gathering together eating food and forgetting about the real world bonds and relationships are built and strengthened. With out gatherings of people to make these things happen people tend to feel alone and helpless. These gatherings help people remember they have people out in the world who will help them and support them.

When I find out about one of my “Girolami Family Parties” coming up, I get super excited. I have a large extended family and we all live in the same town. This means every family member’s birthday and every holiday gets a party. Our large get-togethers used to overwhelm me when I was little. As I’ve gotten to know each of my family members more personally over the years, though, I love the time spent with them. Another thing I love about my family’s parties is their traditions. On Christmas Eve, I go to my grandparents’ house, where we have a Christmas carol competition. We get into groups and each group sings assigned lines of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. We also catch up with each other during horderves, dinner, and dessert. I think this is very unusual for today’s society. There is such a high divorce rate and families do not spend as much time bonding together as they used to. Many of my peers don't enjoy being with their families.

I enjoy the holidays because it means that i get to be around all my family and spend time with them. I like it when it is a big party because it's fun getting to see all of my cousins and family again. My favorite tradition that my family likes to do is have game nights. Usually once a month or whenever everyone could we would have dinner and play competitive games. It was always fun and of course loud because of how many people were there.

I love the holidays, but having every one of my family members from both sides getting together for a holiday is somewhat very overwhelming. Both sides of my family (mom and dads sides) are very different and don't necessarily get along very well, which can make it extremely awkward for my family and I. I love my family, but spending time together with every member of the family can not always give off the best outcome when discussing different topics at the dinner table.

Personally, large family get-togethers are overwhelming. My family has hosted family dinners but, every year there is a different host. This year my family hosted Thanksgiving, and my house was packed! Everyone brought a plate and our kitchen counter was full. There was lasagna, chicken, pies, turkey, pork, rice, and salad. Our dining table was full and so was the kitchen, which was why I had to eat on the couch. My family even had a small musical group come to my house and play in our living room. It was so loud I could not even hold an actual conversation with anyone. Family is important to me and although it was overwhelming, it was nice having everyone together.

I enjoy seeing family over the holidays, but they can sometimes be overwhelming and stressful. Normally at these reunions, I have one or a few family members that I spend the most time with and intentionally avoid certain family members.

I’m going to start this off by saying that I have never felt connected with anyone in my (very large) extended family. Even since I was a little girl I would find myself tagging along behind the more outgoing cousins, quietly sitting at the table not contributing to conversation, and retreating to a spare bedroom to be alone. I’ve come to the realization that I’ve never felt included because everyone was trying to tread lightly about what they said to me, since my life was extremely different than theirs. I mean, if you think about it, most of my aunts and uncles are still married and have a bunch of children, whereas my mom and I pretty much only have each other. And although I like it that way and am extremely grateful for my mom and everything she’s done for me, my family who doesn’t bother to spend time with or learn anything about us thinks of us as a charity case. I hate it. My mom and I have talked about this so many times that we’ve just decided not to go to any more family events. We had Thanksgiving by ourselves this year which was 100 times better than it would have been at my grandmother’s, and we plan on spending Christmas “alone” this year too. Since I’ve stopped having to be around my extended family I no longer dread the holidays and can actually look forward to them for once.

Coming over to my grandparents house for Thanksgiving is always something we do and have done. Everyone picks a type of dishes they will make and my grandpa cooks the bird. The younger kids play outside or in the living room together while the men sit on the porch laughing and talking; and us women joke around and pick on eachother in the kitchen. It's truly magical being part of all of it. Sometimes I like to just sit on the outside and look in on everything going on and know that these people are my people. In the article it mentions how deep social connections can improve your longevity. Well if that's true, we should all be immortal! As a rule we all don't talk about politics mainly because everyone is so diverse and it's hard for people to see other peoples views. Usually we talk about a broad spectrum of topics anyway. We touch bases on anything from sports to security systems. Just last Thanksgiving we made a whole blueprint for my aunts deck! In the end we always know we have each others backs and can always talk and connect over Thanksgiving.

Setting the stage, Kenansville North Carolina, Thanksgiving Day. All of your relatives come together to eat a meal together. While this may seem innocent enough. In a family with such... southern pride roots. Thanksgiving for my mother, sister, and I is a dreaded experience where we put on a happy face. My mother one of the few registered non republicans in the family, me the openly gay liberals kid, and my sister the girl that doesn't know who she is yet are faced with a chaotic attack of questions. "Any new 'friends'" they say to me with an uncomfortably strained grin. "What do you want to with your life" "Where do you want to go to college" Questions I have no answers to but saying I don't know just isn't satisfactory. That is why I personally enjoy after Thanksgiving where my mom sister grandma and I eat togeher celebrating eachother other the people we are truly thankful for. Christmas is a time of year where everyone in my family is touchy and emotional. A time where me (a recovering/relapsing off and on anorexic) has to sit through painstaking meals and everyone mourns the death of my grandfather from years before who no one really ever finished grieving being on of the biggest losses in our family. While there are many different "morals behind these holidays for myfamilythey are a time of confiding in eavhother to bunker down and push through which in itself is due for celebration because it is one of the few times in the year we are all truly there for each other.

My family has hosted a multitude of holiday gatherings over the years, yet out of them all we always host Christmas Eve. We have hosted Christmas Eve so many times that if any other family member even attempted to claim it, a fight may break out. My family enjoys Christmas Eve more than Christmas morning, it's an Italian thing. You scrub the house clean, even you're bedroom closet, it doesn't matter if no one is going to see it! You prepare the feast of the seven fishes and mentally prepare yourself for the ruthless flow of carbs coming your way. It's loud, It's crowded, It's hectic, It's what the holidays are rooted in. Some may call it overwhelming, and you know what it is. Between the not so enjoyable extended family and the semi-controversial political discussions at dinner that make you realize why you only see certain family members once a year. It can be a lot, but welcome to the holiday season, take it or leave it.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year. My family often gathers at my grandparents place. We go over what has happened in the past year and laugh at the mistakes we made. My aunt usually brings over pie, casserole, and other treats. My cousins, my siblings, and I usually end up getting into trouble. For example, one year my adoptive brother and his brother got into an argument. I can’t remember exactly what it was about, but it must have been very important because all of the sudden my cousin had his hands around my brothers neck choking him. According to the adults that were there instead of separating them I sat there eating a turkey leg and watching my brother get choked out by his brother. Only when the adults looked over to see what was happening did I say anything. Though this happened years ago every year we tell this story. They are no longer aloud to sit near each other during dinner. Sadly though my family has recently moved nine hours away from them, so they aren’t joining us for dinner this year. This has made me realize how much care for my cousin and how thankful I am that him and my brother are in my life.

Sometimes yes, I love spending time with my family, but doesn’t everyone? We all love our families but that love can also only go to a certain extent and when it does in fact go beyond that extent it can be pretty aggravating or stressful. For me that is very true. My family is large and contains all sorts of people from all around such as Wilmington, Virginia, California, China, and Germany. So when we all get together it is a pretty big affair that not only costs us a lot of money but a lot of time. Every Thanksgiving it's sort of like a hit or miss with my family. Either it will be a big one or a small one. This year it is going to be a small one and to be honest I am pretty disappointed. My cousins are going to be with their mom and my other cousins are going to be in Florida and my other, other cousins are going to stay in their country because if not everyones going to be there, there is no point(in their minds). This Thanksgiving it is just going to be me, my mom and dad, my grandma, and my uncle and aunt. Pretty sad considering the guest list is normally 20 plus. Now don’t get me wrong my family can be annoying, of course, just the same as yours too but my family is not only annoying but they are wild. I am not to sure how they all managed to come out the same but I guess I shouldn’t be complaining because now I know that my life would be less interesting without them and I thank them for that.

I very much enjoy large family gathering under one condition that there is enough space to house the large group of people. To me a large group is fine especially if it’s my family. No matter how much I love them as soon as the room gets tight I'm out. My most memorable gathering was the first year I moved to my new house and we had all of my mom’s family come to my house and some of my dad’s family and we all ate dinner together. Everybody brought some food and the boys played football in the backyard. Best Part was I see some of this same so rarely I got some Christmas presents too. My most memorable tradition is coloring on the tablecloth. I know this sounds really silly but it’s something I do every year. At my aunt's house we get a white tablecloth and we use rainbow colored markers to write messages to family who can not make it or who are no longer with us to show our love for them. We also do a hand turkey contest as well everybody gathers around the table and does their best hand turkey. They are then posted to Facebook for a vote and are checked the next morning for the winner.

I love family gatherings. Thanksgiving, particularly, has always been my favorite time of year. Every year, for the bulk of my life, up until I moved two years ago, I would have extended family members from both sides of my family come from across the country to gather at our house for Thanksgiving. My cousins from New York, Georgia, Mississippi, and numerous other places gathering together and playing Just Dance or Mario Kart or Wii Sports are some of my most fond memories. Now that I live so far away from everyone else, however, it’s tough to go to gatherings like that. It’s been two years since I celebrated a large thanksgiving, and out monthly large-scale get togethers have become increasingly rare. Last week, though, I got to visit my cousins for one of their birthday parties. Things are different than when I was seven. The Wii has been replaced by a Nintendo Switch. Super Smash Bros. Brawl with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. A play room full of toys with some couches and outlets. Despite the changes, however, things are still very much the same. The blended recipes of Sierra Leone, Jamaica, and Mississippi are as good as ever. The blasting music still roars far past 2 am. Most importantly, though, despite the differences that are becoming more and more apparent between us, we still manage to have fun. We still allow ourselves to unwind around one another. My family still knows me best, and I still love to be around them more than anyone else.

I enjoy large get-togethers because I don't have any relatives in the United States apart from my immediate family. These get-togethers, therefore, are almost always with other families in the local Chinese community. The community is effectively an extended family when the real relatives are on the other side of the world. These get-togethers are really just large parties that are held at family houses. My family hosts a New Year’s Party annually, a tradition that started several years ago. Because the relationship with friends is less close than with family, we seldom find ourselves very annoyed with each other. The food is always a potluck, with many Chinese dishes coming together to satisfy the hunger for the children and to remind the adults of their home. We always eat together, and I think this is one of the most important things connecting us.

I always look forward to having dinner with my family during the winter holidays, it’s great to be with your family to celebrate something even if you haven’t seen each other in a long time. I always eat dinner alone so t’s nice to have a couple of days to spend time together. My family doesn’t really have any rituals during the winter holidays but my father and sister all celebrate Hannukah together at home and we do play some traditional games like spinning the dreidel and betting chocolate.

I love spending time with my family. Thanksgiving is when I get to see relatives that I haven’t seen in a very long time. I enjoy being able to have a blast with all my family members play games and especially eat. I love the company of my family who I don’t see as much. Then on Christmas everyone coming together opening and sharing gifts. Showing cousins and everyone the gift you got. There’s nothing like it. I love this time of year because it’s when I feel my family is a unit, and one.

Honestly even if it was just me and my mom I would be happy because I would be eating a lot of food. Yeah I like seeing my other family but we’re together most of the time so it’s really nothing new. Large family get togethers are usually just the adults clicking laughing having fun while the kids just relax. In the article a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford says holidays help us build community and help create or strengthen our family and friends relationships and I agree. Every holiday we come together rebuilding bonds making new bonds or making our bonds greater. Sometimes there are arguments but nothing too bad it’s all out of love , well that’s what I tell myself anyway

The winter months is probably the time of the year that you spend the most time with your family.Thanksgiving and Christmas are big family holidays for most people and in my opinion it can get to be a bit much. Spending time with your family is great but it can get to be a little boring and almost stressful. A study has shown that the average person can spend about four hours with family before needing a break. You are most likely spending about that amount of time with your family over the holidays, I know I am, or at least it feels like it.

I find large family gatherings overwhelming yet exciting. This is because whenever I need to talk to the parents of relatives that I don’t know too well, I am put in an awkward situation, but once I surpass conversation with the parents and talk with their kids, I am thrilled. I love having enjoying conversations with kids my age. My most memorable gathering is during Christmas, when my dad’s coworker invite a large group of people to his house for a Christmas party. Every year the adults gather around the large dining table while the children enjoy themselves in the living room. What makes this special is the children always have a sequence of challenges against each other. Although we do different challenges each year, there is one that we do every year, and that is the pickle in the tree. Right before the Christmas party ends, one of the adults hides a pickle in the Christmas tree and the kids are split into brackets. First one to find the pickle in the tree moves on to the next round, and the final winner wins a prize. I find this a very thrilling gathering that I go to annually.

I don’t really get overwhelmed when my family comes over. We usually host Thanksgiving, but it is not a large amount of people that come by. We may have a couple of family members drop by for Christmas, but other than that, we don’t get a big group. I personally find approaching the holidays exciting. I get to see family that I may not have seen in a while. Family time is always important to have, even if you may find it overwhelming. In the end, you realize what it’s all really about. It’s about getting together as one big family and hang out.

I excited to go to my grandma's. I always go to her house during the week. I love her so much. She's getting old so I want to spend more time with her. She's and 92 years old her memories getting bad. So I want to do the story corp thing so I can remember her stories even when she can't.

Yes. Because it is good to have guests come over for Thanksgiving dinner.

Around this time of year, I personally get pretty excited. Half of my family lives in Greensboro, NC- and we pretty much only see each other on holidays, spring break, and a few days over the summer. I happen to be extremely close with my 3 cousins from Greensboro, so anytime I get to see them I know will be a good one. Though aside from my family in Greensboro, the rest of my direct family lives here- who I am especially close with simply because I see them almost everyday of the week. In the related article, Julianne Holt-Lunstad says “..our social connections to others have powerful influences on health and longevity”, and how even if you may dread the holidays, feasting with others might be just exactly what you need- simply as a system of support. I believe holiday traditions vary on the people and families, but I do know my family holds a lot of traditions, and we do our best to keep them alive. Each year I pretty much have 2 Thanksgivings, one on my moms side and one on my dads. Wherever I may be enjoying my meal and feasting with my family, there is always endless laughter and memories made I know I could never forget.

For me personally, I love meeting with one side of my family—my mom’s side—and not so much my dad’s side. I believe it varies from person to person as every single person’s family is different from the next. There are a lot of traditions that come with both sides of your family,ex. the women on my moms side make homemade tamales every Christmas Eve, and I think that that has a play in whether or not someone wants to be close to their family because of the bonds made.