The Thanksgiving holiday is nearly here and students, faculty and staff will be scattering to eat turkey, study and spend time with family. Here is a sampling of what some in the university community will be doing during the holiday and what favorite family traditions they are looking forward to.
“I will be spending Thanksgiving at my house with my family (brothers, sisters, nieces, nephew, great nieces and great nephews , my new son-in-law’s family and numerous other close friends. We should have 50-plus people eating turkey and dressing at the house. My oldest sister asks that we all hold hands and say what we are thankful for during the past year. Most of the others try to move forward and skip this part. Main tradition is family getting together for the holiday. My children and many nieces attend AandM, so on Friday we will truly have a house divided.”
-Robert Dahlstrom, University of Texas Police Department chief
“I will be spending Thanksgiving at home with my whole family – husband, kids, parents, grandma, great aunt, sister and her family, and in-laws. We’ll have a whole crew over for lunch, afternoon football games and dinner. The food is my favorite family tradition – grandma’s homemade egg noodles, apple pie and homemade ice cream, homemade Chex Party Mix – YUM! And my newest favorite family tradition is paper plates for the holidays!”
-Tricia Berry, director, Women in Engineering Program
“Unfortunately, I will be spending Thanksgiving in Austin this year by myself. Though I would love to enjoy a family meal, I have to take the LSAT on Dec. 1. Therefore, I am going to stay in the library over the holiday so that I can study for the test.”
-Andrew Solomon, Student Government president
“This year, my family (wife and two of our children) is going to El Paso and then onto Juarez, Mexico where my brother and his family are living this year. Family tradition-normally I dress up as a turkey–just kiddin’. I guess my favorite tradition is eating my wife’s stuffing (she is also a professor at UT). Eating a lot of it, in fact.”
-John Daly, the Liddell Professor of Communication, University Distinguished Teaching Professor
“As an Englishman, Thanksgiving does not have much sentimental meaning to me. So I like to use it to do things I can only do while all the Americans are otherwise occupied. Last year I was downtown and it was eerily quiet; there were no cars or people around, just a few newspapers tossing about in the wind. It was very dramatic, like the scenes of a deserted London in the film ’28 days later.’ So this year I think I’m going to go downtown with my camera and get some good footage of familiar places completely abandoned in bright daylight for some zombie movie I may make in the future. Who knows, maybe it will become my own unique family tradition.
-Sam Gosling, associate professor, Department of Psychology
“I will be spending this Thanksgiving holiday with my family in my hometown of Friendswood just right outside of Houston. Even though it’s only a three-hour drive from Austin, the demanding schedule at UT has kept me busy so I’m truly excited for the time I’ll have with my family. Although Thanksgiving is not the most celebrated holiday in my family due to cultural upbringings, we do take advantage of the fact that extended family members are in town during this time of year. Consequently, most of our family traditions revolve around at least four generations of family members getting together in one big house for lots of food and lots of laughs. Getting to see older relatives and cousins I grew up with is by far the best thing to look forward to. It’s guaranteed that humiliating childhood stories will be retold and of course, new stories will be revealed. I simply can’t wait!”
-Nicole Trinh, Student Body vice president
“I have a very large family. Before my grandparents passed away we always got together on Thanksgiving day. Now we all get together on the Sunday before. So this year will not any different except I will be attending my first Texas/Texas AandM game at AandM. Go Horns. When we met on Thanksgiving one half of the family would always be wearing burnt orange and the other half, well yes… maroon. As soon as the Texas/Texas AandM game came on not one empty chair could be found around several strategically placed televisions. If the game became one sided, some loud snoring could be heard from the supporters of the losing team. I am looking forward to the best tradition of all. Watching all of my aunts try to outcook each other. Oh, the food that will come out of those kitchens.”
-Darrell Halstead, University of Texas Police Department officer
