As Thanksgiving gets closer and closer, I get even more excited for one of my favorite holidays of the year.

The thing is, though, while we do have a traditional Thanksgiving in my home, there is the Italian twist to it. I come from a large, loud, Italian family. Trust me, it's not your normal, run-of-the-mill Thanksgiving.

You can definitely expect these eight things to happen at your house or your nona's house on Thanksgiving.

1. The days leading up to Thanksgiving are these huge runs to the grocery store.

When I mean huge, like it's obnoxious. People stare at you for having 2-3 carts of food and people physically stop and ask how many people you're having for Thanksgiving.

2. You start the day off eating at approximately 3 p.m. and you're not done eating until about 5 p.m.

Then you break for an hour and you do dessert around 7 p.m. because, I mean, eating and the general idea of food is the main concept of Italian heritage

3. When your family shows up, they come in herds.

Everyone has some sort of dish to bring, your nona's car is filled up with catering trays of food, including the lasagna and her signature soup-stracciatella. From there on out, the house is filled.

4. God forbid you don't start with an antipasto or the world will explode.

It's sacrilege to not have antipasto at every family holiday and/or event. As much as you may try not to fill up on it, it's not possible.

5. You're trapped at the kids table for the rest of your life because your family is so big.

You don't mind it, though, because you love being with your cousins and all of the togetherness. Still, the best thing about the kids table is when dinner is about to start and one of the kids has to say Grace and then everyone starts saying why they should be exempt from the responsibility. Let me tell you, the pressure is on when you have to say Grace.

6. Sure, there's your traditional Thanksgiving meal, but there's also soup and pasta.

I mean, sure, there's like two or three turkeys and a huge amount of fixings, but still we start with the soup, then lasagna and then you can have Thanksgiving dinner. However, by at that point I'm so full that I could explode on the walls.

7. Yeah, we have the traditional pies, but you can count on there being cannolis, sfogliatelle and nona's platter of cookies, including my personal favorite — the rainbow cookies.

Also, there is giurgiulena that's on a platter, and it can shatter a tooth. By dessert, you physically have no more room in your body for food. Dessert is served alongside of espresso with sambuca, which is consumed along with the castana with the orange peels.

8. Everyone leaves with excessive amounts of leftovers

I mean, my mom and nona actually buy tupperware and trays for the end event, which is packing up the leftovers, and everyone leaves with goodies.