traditional foods

running around blog land i found a post about the yucky stuff people had for thanksgiving. have you ever stopped to think about the things that are traditional foods in your family?

i'm curious as to what are "the" foods everyone has to have a family get togethers like thanksgiving or christmas.

i've already mentioned the stuffing situation--hubs grew up on cornbread stuffing and i grew up on bread stuffing. it must be added that neither of these are cooked in the bird. my mom puts oysters in her stuffing too. i like them. however, this year she used boxed dressing and added oysters to it, uh, no, that's NOT the same thing. not good.

we also have watergate salad, which is not a salad, and should be considered a dessert but is not. it is pistachio pudding mix w/ cool whip, canned pineapple, marshmallows, nuts and cherries (or some variation of those ingredients).

we have broccoli casserole---broccoli, cream of shrume soup, cheese, mayo? not sure what goes in it but for the last several years my sister has made it instead of my mom and she doesn't make it right.

we have pumpkin pie--thanks to sarah lee (though mom used to make these homemade).

the sil has become the designated apple pie maker and i believe had the hubs been aware of this before hand he might have picked her over me. he loves that pie--and it's made w/ splenda, who knew?

the thing i don't like about not having thanksgiving at my house is that i have no leftovers. i could really go for a turkey sandwich and some punkin pie.

what are your traditional dishes?