Maybe Thanksgiving is an easily navigated event for your family. You have traditions in place—eating, watching football, playing games and perhaps a midnight excursion for shopping. But how much conversation do you engage in, and what do you talk about?

Change up the pace and spirit of your Thanksgiving by pulling out your family photos. Get the books off the shelf and those photo stragglers out of boxes. Stoke up your hard drive on your tablet and release those pictures to view.

Make a game with your family photos

Pull several dozen of your signature family photos. Take note of what you know about those images, like who, what and where, and when they were captured.

Now place all those unmarked photos face-up and have your family gather to place them in order by date, and voila! You have a family conversation timeline with image prompts.

Do others get the details behind the pictures right? Do they know the stories? What other stories do they remember that you’ve forgotten or never knew? Take the extra step to rev up the recorder on your phone and catch an audio of the stories and conversation.