We're Thankful for the Weird Stuff.

Around the table with the ENC ladies.

There are two kinds of people in this world. The ones who believe Thanksgiving is a sacred culinary event, complete with perfectly roasted turkey, homemade stuffing, and a table set three days in advance. And the ones who are just happy to be invited, preferably with a glass of wine and absolutely no responsibility for the gravy.

At ENC, we've got a little bit of both.

Some of us are loyal to the classics. Others have thrown the traditional Thanksgiving playbook out the window entirely. But whether we're gathered around a table in Arizona, Texas, New York, or somewhere in between, there's one thing we can all agree on: the best part of Thanksgiving has very little to do with what's actually on the plate.

So, in the spirit of giving thanks (and sharing a few family secrets), we're pulling up six chairs and dishing on the traditions that make the holidays ours.

Elizabeth | Marshmallows, Movie Nights & Memory Lane

I go to Western New York with my family every year to visit my grandparents for the holidays. My favorite tradition (harder each year) has become squishing together on the couch in the family room to watch movies next to the fire, my sister and I arguing about who gets the end cushion verses the middle.

Of course it wouldn't be the holidays without food !!! I'm a marshmallow addict and you can best believe I'll be in the kitchen cutting the Jet Puffed lil marshies on top of the sweet potatoes so that they become golden brown toasted in the oven. Marshmallows are the star, the rest is to accompany :)

Lastly, I love looking through old photos. My grandparents' house is a museum with a new exhibit to my eyes every year. Rummaging through old boxes and pulling out buried photographic treasure will entertain me infinitely when it's cold and dreary outside!

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Marly | Stuffing, Shopping & Staying Up Way Too Late

Thanksgiving looks a liiiittle different for me every year, whether I'm spending it back home with all of my extended family, in AZ with my cousins or with friends who I've just coined family at this point. One of my favorite traditions was flipping through Black Friday ads and catalogs while Thanksgiving dinner was still cooking, circling all the things we had our eyes on. Once the pumpkin pie was gone, it was time to get ready for the midnight shopping excursion. We'd head out and shop until the early hours of the morning, making a whole night of it.

A Thanksgiving meal will forever be one of my most favorite. Give me a little turkey and extra of all the side dishes, and I'm a happy (and very full) gal! And, I hate to be that person, but out of all the stuffing's I've ever eaten, my mom's "homemade" Stove Top Turkey Stuffing will be the best one.

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Channing | Snoopy, Sweet Treats & a Very Good Boy

I am heading back to Texas to spend Turkey Day with family & honestly my favorite tradition is waking up and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with the whole fam in our pj's! I have such nostalgia thinking about doing this every year since I can remember. My favorite balloon is the snoopy one and I look forward to seeing him every year:) Oh! And you can't forget keeping the dog show on in the background as we all chef it up in the kitchen.

Woweeee the feeling of being so full on Thanksgiving is so real and lovely. My favorite food (dessert haha) is this beautiful chocolate pie that we get every year from the cutest local bakery! It has a GIANT mound of whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top. Truly iconic.

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Lanya | A Kurdish Twist on Turkey Day

We always have a veryyyyy large Thanksgiving spread, half of which is the traditional American cuisine while the other half is Thanksgiving with a Kurdish twist. What does that consist of you may ask? Well, it entails rice and stew (a classic combo in Kurdish culture) with a boiled turkey in spices and a flavorful broth. I personally always aim for the American side and am a BIG sides girl. Green bean casserole and stuffing are probably my top two. I've perfected a homemade sourdough stuffing recipe that is truly delicious im excited to cook up!When the bellies are full its time to play games. We play a card game that is similar to gin rummy but the Kurdish version that my dad taught us growing up allll the time while enjoying a variety of pies (pumpkin with whip is superior sorryyyy!) and tea to cap the night!

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Jess | Reservations, Reindeer & Two Thanksgivings

Thanksgiving at my house has always been a little unconventional. You see, my brother and I have ever been particularly fond of the traditional Thanksgiving spread and my dad, being a practical man, saw absolutely no reason to spend an entire day cooking a feast for four people, half of whom didn't even want to eat it. My mom, however, was devastated. Thanksgiving dinner is her FAVORITE meal. Her death-row meal, to be exact. So, we did what any family with wildly different culinary opinions would do: we made reservations.

The one tradition we never messed with though was The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. That's always been the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the holiday season in our house. Once Santa makes his appearance, it's Christmas, baby.

These days, I've married a Canadian, so we get TWO Thanksgivings between October and November. Twice the family time, twice the food, and twice the excuses to gather around a table. Turns out, you don't need turkey to have a pretty wonderful Thanksgiving.

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Ellyse | The Famous Appetizer & an Open-Door Policy

Okay hear me out. It's my famous always requested shrimp, pea pod peanut sauce appy!

Think shrimp wrapped in mint, cilantro, basil and pea pod and ready for dipping in my peanut sauce.

It's such a light, refreshing start to an otherwise heavy duty day of indulgence!

Turkey day has always been a day of all the good vibes. Family and stragglers alike flock to my rents house and we feat and play games and just settle into the season of the good stuff.

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Different Tables. Same Good Stuff.

Six women. Six different Thanksgivings. A suspicious amount of stuffing loyalty.

Some of our favorite traditions involve recipes passed down through generations. Others involve department store catalogs, oversized cartoon balloons, and the beautiful convenience of someone else doing the dishes. Maybe that's what makes traditions so special in the first place. They're not necessarily the things that make sense to anyone outside your family. They're the little rituals, inside jokes, familiar flavors, and annual arguments that somehow become part of who you are.

The things you look forward to. The things you laugh about. The things you keep coming back to, year after year.

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