This will be my 67th Thanksgiving. I thought about Thanksgivings past this morning. My earliest memories of Thanksgiving are those in my childhood home, a small cape-style green house in a nice neighborhood. During those Thanksgivings, we typically took a nice walk with Dad in a woodsy area while Mom prepared dinner. When we arrived home, we enjoyed a delicious dinner with our grandparents.
Later, during the teen years, we often attended the annual St. John's-St. Peter's football game or a local road race. My youngest brother played in the football game for a few years. Then returned home for the same delicious dinner including turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, breads, stuffing, gravy, onions, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and chocolates. Our grandparents and great-aunt joined us at the table.
I remember there was one Thanksgiving as a child when we had quite a snowfall--that made the house seem very cozy. In the early years, many of our relatives would join us after Thanksgiving dinner at our home to continue the festivities. My cousins and I played and played and played at those events.
There were a few sad Thanksgivings when family members were ill or out-of-sorts, and Thanksgivings close to the loss of loved ones. There were also Thanksgivings when we went to church in the morning before dinner.
Once I met my husband, I began to celebrate Thanksgiving twice--once at my family's house and once at his family's house. Fortunately our families lived close enough to each other that we could do that. Then, in time, my husband's relatives and mine joined together to celebrate. Later, there were years when we traveled to celebrate with our siblings or Mike's Aunt Patty. In the early years, those celebrations, like the one's hosted at our own house, were marked by the fact that my siblings, husband, and I were learning how to put on such a big meal. We started a tradition of the hike after Thanksgiving and leftovers with my husband's family which is a tradition we look forward to.
When my sons played football, we hosted Thanksgiving so family members could go to the football game in the morning--we had very big crowds those years. And now, the celebrations continue to vary each year. Sometimes we travel and sometimes we host the event at our house. This year we're having 16 for dinner--a nice crowd that can all sit at the same table. We'll serve the food buffet style so there's room to relax at the table.
I'm happy that we continue to celebrate with loved ones. Onward.
