A 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving day, over 40 people will stretch the confines of the home of Pete and Rosalie Carttar in Old West Lawrence. The dining room will be filled with multiple tables, and the furniture in the living room will be replaced by long tables. As the family sits down, the venerable 86-year-old Maggie Carttar will say a short German prayer. Next, the family will dig into several bowls of stuffing, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes and the Pièces de résistances: the three large turkeys.

  So much food would require several hours, and ovens, of cooking. This is a luxury that the Old West Lawrence home does not provide.

   “There is only one oven in their house, so everyone brings food,” Carttar in-law Mary Francis Ellis said. “Luckily, everyone in the family likes making something, so one person will make all of the green beans. Maggie always makes about 30 pounds of mashed potatoes.”

   Because everyone pitches in and everyone in the family brings about 45 servings of a particular dish, cooking time is reduced. However, extensive in-house cooking is still required for the feast.

   “My sisters and I will go over to my grandma’s house and help her cook,” senior Tennery Carttar said. “We peel potatoes and help with the turkey; we are the only grandkids that help Maggie with the cooking.”

   Though the other grandchildren may not assist their matriarch, they all will show up at the dinner.

   The feast begins when all of the Carttars arrive with hot plates and bowls of food. Instead of socializing with each other, the family eats while the food is still hot and holds the talk until after the meal.

   “After we eat, there is always a touch football game in the street,” Tennery said. “When we finally decide to go inside and eat pie, more socializing happens. It can go on for hours.”

   After consuming multiple pies, the Carttars practice their caroling in preparation for their Christmas tradition. To do this, the family gathers in a room next to a roaring fire with all four generations together. However, the task of fitting over 30 Carttars into a single room is challenging, and the Carttar family has had to adapt by switching the setting of their Thanksgiving dinner.

   “In the olden days, it was at Amah’s [Maggie’s] house when only 20 family members came,” Free State junior Patrick Carttar said. “There were only four tables, but through the years, it has become crazier and crazier.”

   But that was when the dinner was small enough to fit into one room. The kids soon began to sit in the kitchen at a large, round table, while the teenagers and adults sat in the living room.

   “Once too many kids were at the kids’ table, we moved Thanksgiving from Maggie’s house to Pete’s,” Ellis said.

    The dinner has grown over the years to include boyfriends, girlfriends and any exchange students that a family member is hosting. This includes extended family and exchange students, as well as people who are new to town and might not have anywhere to go.

   “We had second cousins from Bolivia come to the dinner last year,” Patrick said.

   The international presence is not only felt at the dinner table, but also across the globe.

   “I was in Japan one time, and this woman knew my grandmother [Maggie],” Tennery Carttar said.

   Though her influence extends across the Pacific Ocean, Maggie’s greatest influence always has been greatest in the Lawrence area. She was involved in the educational system from the public schools, and taught at the University of Kansas for a couple years as well. Maggie served as President of the School Board for one term in addition to many years of service to the board.

   “Maggie had six kids who are all married,” Tennery said. “Five of the siblings have three kids, and the other one has two kids, so there are a lot of us.”

   All of Maggie’s children attended LHS, and two of their spouses attended the school as well. Her children attended the school over a period of 15 years, hence the community presence of the Carttar family.

   “There isn’t a single person who grew up in Lawrence who doesn’t know a Carttar,” Patrick said. “At the grocery store, someone will see your name and say, ‘Are you related to Steve [oldest of Maggie’s children]?’”

   The 33 members of the Carttar family are well-renowned within the city. Within their family however, the immense size does not hinder relationships between members.

   “Once a month, all six of the siblings get together for drinks,” Ellis said. “Meanwhile, the spouses of the siblings (we call ourselves the outlaws) also have drinks.”

   When family gathers for Thanksgiving next Thursday, the Carttar clan will be preparing for annual mayhem. But as the chaos grows, so does the identity of the family.

   “It’s a part of your being,” Patrick said. “People ask me where I’m from, and I’ll say ‘I’m from Lawrence; I’m a Carttar.’”

   The close knit group will only grow as the years go by. Having grown from 20 to 33 members in a span of 10 years, the family already has welcomed Maggie’s first two great-grandchildren into the fold.

   With the new additions, the Carttar mayhem is sure to continue.