Thanksgiving is all about being thankful and reflecting on the things you have. The Sanderson High School Spartans look back at their favorite Thanksgiving memories this holiday season.

  English Teacher, Jon Shank shared “It would probably be when my wife moved down [to Raleigh]. We used to do Thanksgiving with both families, but when we moved down here, we did our first one by ourselves.” 

   “We got to make our own food; we are vegetarian so we didn’t have to worry about people asking us: ‘what are you going to eat’, and all that stuff. We can make our own filling and mashed potatoes. And I started making pecan pie and cherry pie, and I made my mom’s pumpkin pie.” He giddily stated as he continued to reflect. 

  Closing his thought he mentioned how special the day was to him. “We just started to have our own thing which felt really cool and unique.”

  Football is arguably the most popular sport in America and roughly 30.3 million people tuned into the 2020 Thanksgiving game between Dallas and Washington. 

  Juniors Lucas Johnson and Thomas Northcutt shared similar apperciations towards watching football with their families. 

  Northcutt expressed, “I like to watch football with my family and bond with them. Football is a great American sport and bonding with my family is important. That way you can have people there to support you.” 

  Traditions are important to many families during the holiday season and Johnson’s family is one of them. 

  Lucas Johnson agreed with Northcutt’s statement and mentioned family traditions. “My favorite memor[ies are] eating food, and watching football and a movie with my family.”

  When asked about the movie Johnson said, “Every year we watch this movie called National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation because it’s a tradition in my family.”

  Families come together and sometimes there are moments in time where members of the family can’t always make it. Senior Layal Sadik shares her memory of seeing her Grandfather from overseas for the first time in years. 

  “My favorite memory is probably when my grandfather came here from overseas. We all went to Ohio where my aunt lives and all of her kids came home.”

  Sadik continues to reflect on her memory, adding the fact that she got the opportunity to see her cousin’s baby for the first time. 

  “It was also cool because it was the first time I got to see my cousin and her baby. I appreciated it because it was the first time in a while that a good portion of my family was able to celebrate the holidays.”

  CTE teacher Rodney Obaigbena also thought back to his childhood, when his whole family would gather together at his grandmother’s house, who they called “big mama”. 

  “Everyone would come to my grandmother’s house and aunts and uncles from all over would come. My grandmother would always make these amazing pecan pies and the pecans were from this pecan tree in her backyard that she would make us pick from every season.” 

  Continuing to look back, he remembered how she would make cookies and pies and even gumbo, which he still prefers over traditional thanksgiving foods to this day. “Every now and then my birthday falls on thanksgiving and I loved it as a kid.”

Closing his thought, Obaigbena says, “The memory of all my family being around the table together on Thanksgiving is probably my favorite memory.”

  Thanksgiving is a time for coming together and remembering reasons to be thankful and grounded. Spartans have shown they are capable of looking back and appreciating things that have brought them to their 2021 holiday season.