Last month, while you booked flights or scheduled Zoom calls for Thanksgiving, we asked you for a peek into your homes as we brought up the topical, sometimes cherished, sometimes dreaded F word: Family. For SixContest #141, you demonstrated the collectively unique experience of sharing a long history with certain people. In their slice of life (and slice of pie) memoirs, Sixers shared how they do Thanksgiving differently (“Lamb soup has always replaced turkey.”—bucolic_frogs); what grandmas do best (“Grandmothers. The best keeper of secrets.”—maryjane31, “We fight hard over Grandma’s food.”—SomeoneHelp), or perhaps a little too well (“Grandmother wouldn’t share secret family recipe.”—Jordana); the power of a single partner in crime (“Everything when I see your face.”—Seth-Bob) and finally, what appears to be the ambiguous truth for most family members, (“Love them, don’t always like them.”—canadafreeze).

Here are our top six picks!

6. Mom’s botulism paranoia legacy: apple-stuffed turkey. —JanAlexander

5. Why can’t we be ourselves together? —Angie5967

4. Family by choice, not by chance. —17caitlin

3. Kids all left; memories in pictures. —rocco33

2. Stars, guiding me through the dark. —NiamhT

And the winner of Your Loving-Crazy-Unique Family in Six Words is…

1. We survived trauma, so did love. —theknitgeek

Congratulations, theknitgeek, for your bittersweet yet inspirational family story. Everyone deserves hope, and hopefully you’ll be able to revel in your sweet victory by flipping through the Six-Word Memoir book of your choice.