We all have family traditions for the holidays. Most kids woke up on Thanksgiving day to go hunting with there father, I wasn’t one of those kids.

For as long as I can remember I woke up Thanksgiving day to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade with my grandpa. I also grew up watching Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving with grandpa the night before. Along with both the parade and Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving, I grew up watching football all day every Thanksgiving, and hearing the yelling between my grandpa and my uncles.

I am almost 23 years old and that is still a huge tradition that I have with him. While watching the parade, grandpa is having his coffee and bagels, and I am rambling on about the floats in the parade and how excited I am for the family to get together.

We always went to my aunt's house and had turkey for dinner, then right after dinner I went to my grandma’s for a second dinner with my mom’s side of the family. When my aunt and uncle moved back from Chicago, we always went to the lake near our house and had dinner with them, then of course on the way into town I’d get dropped off at my grandmas.

I will never forget waking up watching the parade with grandpa, or the wonderful smells of the houses I went to. Even though I wasn’t one of those children to wake up early to go hunting, I still had my own tradition with my family. What does Thanksgiving mean to me? Thanksgiving means to me eating wonderful food, praising the Lord, being thankful for all that I have and most importantly being with my family.