Nobody's mentioned the deviled eggs and watergate salad yet. A staple at every thanksgiving I can remember (back home, that is), my mom made some very bodacious deviled eggs.
For those that have never experienced them: she'd hard-boil some eggs, peel 'em, cut 'em in half and separate the yolks. All of the yolks then got
mashed in a bowl with mustard, paprika, and other stuff. Then you take that mixture and fill up the holes in the hard-boiled egg whites. Served cold, they're delicious! (Though they always felt kind of clammy when you picked them up to eat them).
Watergate salad? That's any fruit salad, mixed with whipped cream and tiny marshmallows... light on the fruit
Ours was always green for some reason. The best part (for a kid, anyway) is they served it with the main course, not as a dessert! Sweet!
And let's not forget my Nana's cranberry Jell-O
TM - molded in a flat sheet-cake with a layer of crushed pecans on the bottom, sometimes with little chunks of pineapple suspended in it.
Happy thanksgiving