Every year, starting from when I was five and a half years old, my family and I have driven 12  hours to the Island Princess condos in Destin, Florida for the week of Thanksgiving break.  Although it may sound long and boring, the drive is worth it, and I look forward to this week and its traditions from the day we get home after last year’s trip. Our family has many unusual and pretty awesome traditions, and they are all important in making our Thanksgiving week one to remember.

We begin our annual trip with 12 hours of driving from our house to Florida. With a family of nine, it is very expensive to fly anywhere, so we end up driving on all family vacations. Hence, our 12-passenger van, aka “The Beast.” This car is great because we have extra room, especially with two of my siblings in college, but it can be cramped at times too. The window seats are the most prized in the car, and as one can expect, window seat wars occur frequently. We can never agree on whose turn it is and who had the seat last, so, like the mature teenagers that we are, we make a seating chart to decide who sits where. Once settled in our positions, we find ways to entertain ourselves for the car ride by watching K-Dramas in the front bench or listening to a Brandon Sanderson audiobook in the back until we arrive at the beach.

On the Sunday after we arrive, we always take family pictures on the beach—no amount of complaining about the temperature of the sand or the angle of the sun in our eyes will convince our mom that these pictures are unnecessary. Generally, the beach is associated with warmth and sun, but Thanksgiving week can get cold and even rainy which makes for some long family picture sessions. It should be noted, however, that while we complain at times, we have improved a lot from when we were five and had to be bribed with Skittles to behave. (Now we just have to be bribed with Diet Coke). But no matter how old we get, there always has to be someone kicking sand in someone’s eyes or another blinking at all the wrong moments. But with all the practice we’ve gotten over the years, I am happy to say that I am a pro at taking jumping pictures, getting my jeans only half full of sand, and timing everything just right to get the beautiful sunset in the background. Despite all the hours we spend posing on the beach, I always really like the pictures we capture as well as the time that we get to spend together as a family. 

One of my favorite traditions—and I honestly have no idea how it started—is going mini golfing. Just a few minutes away from our condo on the beach, there is an outdoor mini golfing place called the Goofy Golf that is exactly what it sounds like: a goofy golf course that looks like it’s been transported here from the seventies. It has all kinds of fun obstacles for the ball to go through and little figures everywhere that we still enjoy climbing on. Sadly, unlike my expert skills when taking family pictures, I’m pretty sure my golfing skills are getting worse every year. But, I still have a great time goofy golfing and an even better time celebrating my win or loss at Chick-fil-A afterward. 

Now, for the tradition that has recently raised some disagreements: pictures with Santa Claus. Years ago, when we started going to the beach, my parents learned that Bass Pro Shops offers free pictures with Santa. This was a fantastic discovery for two parents trying to find ways to entertain five little quintuplets and their two older siblings. Each kid got to sit on Santa’s knee in the North Pole, pose for their picture, and walk away with a mini candy cane in their doll-sized hand. And of course, looking at all the fish in the giant fish tank afterward was always a highlight. So, we continued to do it year after year, even through COVID-19 when they had to place a plexiglass screen between us and Santa. And this year, we’ll be lining up again with all the cute little children as 16-year-olds to tell Santa what we want for Christmas. My siblings may say they are too old for it, but the pictures do turn out good in the end, and I’m not complaining about the mini candy cane we get afterward. Plus, can you ever be too old for jolly ol’ St. Nick? I don’t think so. Our Thanksgiving wouldn’t feel the same without the Santa pictures at Bass Pro Shops, and like a wise Doofenshmirtz once said: “It’s tradition. And I’m traditional.”

Now, you may have seen in my staff profile that I don’t like running. In fact, I think that running is kind of the worst, and I try to avoid it. But on Thanksgiving Day at 6:30 in the morning, my family and I wake up, throw on our running shoes and clothes, and drive down the street to participate in the Recycle Run 5K. The Recycle Run is led by a race organizing group that hosts different races all year—Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s Day, New Year, etc.—and by the end of the year, they always have leftover t-shirts, trophies, and bibs that they have no use for. So, they created the Recycle Run where they gather all the leftover supplies from these races as well as other shirts and trophies that people have donated, and they lay them out on several large tables for the runners to pick from. There is no limit on the number of shirts one can grab, and sometimes I’ve come home with six new shirts to wear. It is always fun to see how people get into the Thanksgiving spirit during the race by wearing matching turkey hats or socks. After we have picked up all our shirts and mentally prepared ourselves for the torture we are about to face, we clip on our Valentine’s Day-themed bibs, and they start us off. We run or walk the 3.1 miles, and at the end, they announce the top winners and allow everyone to pick a trophy of their choice. With trophies ranging from a youth league’s basketball championship in 2007 or a marathon in 2018, there is always a prize for everyone.

For Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night, our whole family contributes to a huge feast of food that has everyone bursting at the seams, and we all go around the table saying what everyone is grateful for. As the sun sinks below the glittering sea in the background, the moment is magical, simply spending time together as a family.

Thanksgiving week at the beach is a great time to read a book with your feet in the sand, paddle board along the coast, try some old-fashioned sandcastle building, or even do some wacky traditions as a family. Our Thanksgiving traditions aren’t typical, but they bring our family together and make Thanksgiving the best holiday of the year.