What To Talk About At Thanksgiving Dinner? Here's Our Suggestion

Things seem to be returning back to normal and this may be the first time in two years that you've had a chance to get together for Thanksgiving. T-giving travel should be good with temperatures around 50 on Thursday..

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So you're getting together with your family and after you catch up...which will probably take around a half-hour, what do you chat about next? Politics? Good heavens no, because that never ends well...unless that was what you wanted in the first place.

When I was young, one of the things that we would do on Thanksgiving morning is go to my Grandma Kipp's farm and go rabbit hunting on the hill. After we were done eating, we would watch football and at halftime, we would go sight in our rifles.

One time, my Uncle Russ was shooting his gun, he shot 5 times but there were only four bullets in the target. His explanation was that one of the bullets must have hit in the exact same spot because there was NO WAY that he would miss it altogether. Believe it or not.

The reason that I'm telling you that story is that it leads us into some interesting Thanksgiving trivia.

Thanksgiving Trivia

When the Pilgrims were sailing to America in 1620, what game did they play? Darts. My Uncle Russ could show off his shooting skills by having the darts hit on top of each other. That's a story that I would believe.

Was the first Thanksgiving a solemn religious occasion? No, it was a 3-day party that included gambling and target shooting. I would bet that my Uncle Russ didn't really hit the same spot twice while target shooting.

In reality, the shooting contest on that first Thanksgiving was to warn the Indians that the Pilgrims were ready to defend themselves.

Did they celebrate Thanksgiving the next year? No, because the harvest was a flop and by the next year, there were many more Pilgrims that needed to be fed. Also, how many times have you gotten together with family and then thought "let's not do this ever again?"

At the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in 1621, what did the Native Americans bring to eat? Popcorn. Maybe my sister, Michelle isn't as crazy as I thought when she put un-popped popcorn in the turkey. Why? She thought that she could cook the turkey and pop popcorn at the same time.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and I hope that you enjoy the time together. If you're interested in other interesting T-givng facts including how a Thanksgiving mistake by Swanson turned into the first TV dinner, go here.

Maybe the safest thing to do is watch a Thanksgiving movie instead. Here are our favorites.