Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving

For many years our family would gather at Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill's farm for Thanksgiving.  I'm not sure when that became our gathering place -- in the late 1960s, I guess.  We loved going there when we were children and continued enjoying our visits as young adults.  As we got bigger and started crowding the kitchen table, Aunt Mary set up a "kids' table" for us on the back entry porch.  We enjoyed this 'cause we could shut the door between the porch and the kitchen and be silly.

As we got older and started our own families, we typically gathered for Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's house.  Then after they down-sized to their "retirement" house, one of my sisters frequently hosted.  Or other sisters would sometimes volunteer their homes.  We even had Thanksgiving dinner at our house one year.

But our families continued to grow and new spouses entered with their own family traditions.  Siblings lived out-of-state.  Sadly our dear grandparents and Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill died, so the Thanksgiving traditions changed further.  In 2009 we did not gather as we always had in the past.  To try to share that day with each other in all of our many homes, I suggested that we all take a picture of our Thanksgiving dinner plates and email them to each other.  It helped to see that we all could still participate in a Thanksgiving sharing of sorts no matter how far apart we all were.

Here are my plates from 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013 (this year).  Turns out many of us were able to get together last year so I apparently did not take a picture.



Each year looks pretty much the same.  Chicken kiev in 2009 and 2010.  A roast beef cooked in the crockpot in 2011.  And turkey breast cooked in the crockpot this year.  Can you tell that my favorite vegetable is green beans?  Don't worry -- my piece of pumpkin pie is waiting for me to eat a little later this evening.

Here's to family . . . . . near and far away . . . . . keep the family traditions near to your heart as you create new ones to cherish in the future.

1971 - Thanksgiving