Not sure if I've shared this before but I have very large family on my mothers side. I'm the oldest of five kids, my Mom was one of seven kids and her mother was one of 13. At Holidays, such as Thanksgiving, when the family gathers together between Aunts, Uncle's, Cousins, Second Cousins, ect we can have 50-60 people show up and the concensus is "Too bad not everyone could make it this year." Now because feeding this family is like feeding an army all family branches shared in the cooking duties and would bring the food potluck style and rotate whose house is hosting.
So one year when the meal was at my Aunts house where she was cooking a turkey. My grandmother also cooked a turkey and brought it along, another aunt cooked and brought a ham. So when the food came out there was plenty of meat, or so we thought. Since it was my Aunts house and she made a turkey that was the first to be carved. But the bird didn't look right, it didn't look brown and crispy like it should. Everyone noticed it but decided that taste was more important than looks. We all said grace and named the things we were thankful for, then my Uncle got to work carving the turkey. Cutting into my Aunts turkey we discovered the problem, it was raw. In all the hustle and bustle of getting the house ready for 50+ guests my Aunt had stuffed and seasoned the turkey, put it in the oven and set her timer; but never actually turned the oven on. "No problem" she said, "I'll put it in now and we can eat the other turkey and ham. Then this one will be ready for when everyone wants second helpings." Of course it wasn't that simple because this was like a 28 pound turkey that needed hours to cook. I'm pretty sure most people had already left by the time it was done.
Another year, right after my Mom got remarried we informed my step-dad about the family tradition of the Turkey Trot. Having such a large family there were many family members that shared names. So each year two people with the same name would get up and dance around the table flapping their elbows like wings while making gobble-gobble noises and every else sang the Turkey song; which was really the chicken dance song. Now my step-dad happened to be named Stephen, and I'm Steven, so he should do the Turkey Trot with me. Normally it would have been my Uncle Mike and my Cousin Mike but they agreed to let us do it instead because it was my step-dads first year with this family tradition. My step-dad was highly skeptical but everyone kept insisting that this was a real tradition we've been doing for years. Though he should have been there two years earlier when Tim, Tim, Tim and Tim had a 4 way Turkey Trot. He wasn't buying it until everyone started singing the Turkey song and I jumped up and started flapping my "wings". At which point he got up and the two of us Turkey Trotted around the table, twice for good measure. When we finished everyone had a good laugh and then we told him that there was no Turkey Trot tradition. My Aunt said it as a joke and the whole rest of the family, without having to be told or asked ahead of time, just went with it because we all have that same kinda sense of humor.
