With Thanksgiving break just around the corner, many students reminisce and fantasize over past meals and fun times with their families and friends.

For Danielle Trevino, a junior communication and art major, the food isn’t the highlight.

“Every Thanksgiving, my family and I go to Lost Maples which is this really pretty hiking area by Utopia, Texas,” said Trevino.”One year we saw them film “˜Utopia’ at Utopia, Texas and we bought stuff from them. It was the most ridiculous show because they had like 24 random people, made a colony, put a fence around them, and wanted to see if they’d survive. They filmed for a year, but the show got canceled like two months in.” said Trevino.

Aida Kajs, a sophomore biology major, enjoys Thanksgiving, but the day after is where her favorite tradition begins.

“On my mom’s side of the family, we all go out and buy a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. People will come back from Black Friday shopping and just go straight to buy a Christmas tree. It’s really fun,” said Kajs.

The family tradition has even been a part of bigger family moments.

“The first Thanksgiving my dad spent with my mom’s family back when they were dating, they had decorated the tree and it was all lit up. My cousin was one or two at the time so they were watching some ABC Disney special thing. “˜When You Wish Upon a Star’ from Pinocchio was playing on the TV and my dad proposed to my mom by the Christmas tree,” said Kajs.

Like Kajs Emily Lupo, a sophomore history and anthropology major, has several Thanksgiving traditions.

“My grandma and I, we always make apple pies together because I’m really bad at it. It’s a tradition and [my grandma’s] hoping that the practice will one day pay off. We always get apples from my backyard.” said Lupo.

Lupo lives in New Hampshire, but last year she visited her grandparents in Florida and experienced a new tradition.

“We raced golf carts on Thanksgiving. That’s not something I’ve done before. All the old people [there] race each other. I don’t know why, but I think one year it started because someone was running late and didn’t want to be the last one there and someone else was [running late too].” said Lupo.

Reese Carlos, a sophomore communication major, also has a fair number of Thanksgiving traditions, such as his family serving a ham, not a turkey.

“As I was growing up, I would try the turkey but it was always super dry so I would just eat bread. I wasn’t a brat about it, I just only ate the bread. But at Christmas, when ham was “˜acceptable’, I would just eat [the ham] up. My grandmother, being such a sweet lady, was like “˜hmm, let’s just see what happens if I bring a ham to Thanksgiving’ and I ate that [ham] up. So my grandmother started bringing ham every year. Everyone would always eat ham over the turkey so eventually we stopped making turkey,” said Carlos.

Classes are canceled from November 23 to the 25 for students to enjoy their favorite Thanksgiving traditions.