Teen turkey greeter surprises family members at Dallas airports
MCKINNEY — The Fenton's boisterous holiday energy is hard to surpass. Their quick wit was only quieted as the family posed for photographer Olivia Caban. Between pictures, it is a party.
Among the group is Jackson Elias. He, his mother Julie, and his younger brother flew to McKinney from Cincinnati to be with his grandmother, Kate Felton. Jackson's mother was responsible for picking up her siblings from the airport.
"So, I figured it would be a good time to greet them," Elias.
Julie Elias asked friends in North Texas if they had a dinosaur costume because of her mother's paleontological connections. They didn't, but someone offered a turkey costume that Julie Elias said she planned on wearing until her son, Jackson Elias, volunteered.
" I just wanted to make people laugh," Jackson Elias said.
The 14-year-old cannot explain what made him do it. From Monday through Thanksgiving Day, he greeted his aunts and uncles at Dallas Fort Worth International and Dallas Love Field airports. Of course, gazing passers-by got a sample.
"Saying 'gobble gobble' when they walked by," he said.
Jackson Elias got laughter and hugs as his relatives arrived from Scotland, Philadelphia, New York, and Las Vegas.
His uncle, Andrew Fenton, jokingly recalls arriving at Love Field. Fenton said he couldn't reach his sister via text message. He thought she was late.
"So, halfway down the escalator, my reaction was, 'Who is the family who brought a turkey? What a bunch of idiots,'" Andrew Fenton said.
Then, as he looked closer, he realized the turkey was a relative.
"Another fourth way down the escalator, I realized, 'Oh, it's our family,'" he said.
Alifah Kasdi, traveling with him, laughed as others on their escalator began snickering. At the very least, it's part of the family's goal to make people smile during such tense times.
"I just appreciated that Jackson and Julie put all this intentional effort to plan this moment for us and timed it perfectly so that they'd be waiting as soon as we met them in baggage claim," Kadsi said.
The trip marks the first time in six years that all siblings have been at their mother's house at once. That didn't escape the matriarch.
"Oh, it's great to have them all at one time because that is what we haven't done for a long time," Kate Fenton said. "We see each other regularly, but not everybody all together. So that's special, really special."
No one has officially manned or "turkeyed" up to wearing the suit for next year. Jackson Elias, an eighth grader, said he would if necessary.
His mother is thinking of doing a dinosaur for next year.
