Every family has Thanksgiving traditions, but do you palooza?  Here are 5 ways I think my family's Thanksgiving rocks:

1. We start AFTER THANKSGIVING on Friday with gingerbreadpalooza:  That's right, not Thursday, but Friday.  As we were all growing up, it became too difficult to all gather on Thursday, so our Thanksgiving is officially the Saturday after. But, Friday night is the night we gather for our annual gingerbread house building competition.  We eat incalculable amounts of pizza, drink even more beer and consume truly alarming, belly-buster pounds of candy.  It's a serious competition where whining is not allowed, hoarding and stealing of candy is encouraged, and youth gets you no advantage.  Be forewarned: the marshmallow Santas go fast and if you have all stolen Luke's idea to make a woodpile from tootsie rolls, stock up quick!  Competition is fierce and open to any age, but participation is required if under age 21.  If you choose not to compete thereafter, we will allow it, but we will disown you.  The over age 50 group of adults tend to get a little drunk, are louder than the kids and spend a lot of time asking each other,"My God, is it hot in here or is it me?" Overall it's a good time, a real gingerbreadpalooza...Did I fail to mention that this gathering takes place at my cousin's house, who happens to live 4 1/2 hours from me? Cuz there's that too.

2. We have Paintballpalooza: Bright and early on Saturday morning, we divide into two camps.  We have the crazies who want to start to Christmas shop on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the truly crazies who want to kill and maim with an especially aggressive afternoon of paintball.  After gathering once again at my cousin's house for the traditional egg casseroles, bagels, potatoes, bacon, coffee, and candy we’ve started to pick off of the gingerbread houses left on the dining room table, we start to gear up.  Some of us dress for an afternoon of shopping, while others dress in camo for the annual paintballpalooza. This activity is open to all 10 years and older, and once again, youth provides you no protection.  We aim to shoot one and all.  Cars are loaded and off we go.  A family that shoots together stays together.

3.  We cater Thanksgivingpalooza and We Don't Have Turkey Anymore:  Finally, at 4:00pm, having showered off paint from almost everyone’s hair, we gather at my aunt's house for the family Thanksgivingpalooza feast. We are lucky to have the perfect house for this; one that has an open floor plan so that sixty-eight of us can sit down to eat. Every year, not all can make the trip, but most years, we do and it’s a scene you can’t imagine. Tables loop around, and around again, so that it looks like a well organized line at Disney World. For years, we all contributed food, and we still do, but the serving, prepping, cleaning and most importantly, bar-tending got to be too much, so we cater.  I admit I do miss the three turkey roasters out on the porch and watching my aunt eat the stuffing as she made it, but the catering makes clean up so much more fun.  The best part is since most of us have already had a traditional, Thanksgiving on Thursday, we are free to try different menus for our Thanksgivingpalooza.  We've tried just about everything, and since we know it's not about the food, we've had some fun with it and, this year, the plan is for Mexican!  Ole!  I can taste the margaritas already.

4.  We take a Familypalooza picture:  You may think this sounds like no big deal, but I challenge anyone to take sixty-eight stuffed, tired and in some cases, a little buzzed people ranging in age from five months old to nearly one hundred and get a good shot.  Not easy, and definitely not all that fun.  Again, there are lots of "Is anyone else warm?" comments.  But, we get it done and, every year, I am so glad we do when I open my email after getting home to see us there in all of our glory.

5.  We agree to Palooza again next year:  When I was growing up, I was one of the few people I knew who loved getting together with family for Thanksgiving.  There wasn't anything at home I wanted to do more, and even in high school when my friends would make great plans to do something that weekend, I never felt I was missing out.  My family agrees each year to rePalooza because we honestly like each other and have found over the years that this weekend is important to us, and is something we want our kids to experience.  Having an extended family, knowing that all those people in that picture care about you and know you and want to be in your life is a pretty powerful thing.  So, if it means having to deal with the NJ Turnpike on the Sunday after Thanksgiving,weather, car breakdowns and screaming kids, it's ok.  Family is one of the most precious things we have in this life and so we all do what we can so that we can continue to palooza. Happy Thanksgiving!