Thanksgiving Traditions

My childhood traditions for Thanksgiving have always been warm fond memories. My parents have instilled such strong family roots. The sad thing is we rarely go home to celebrate these memories with my side of the family. Fortunately, for my children their daddy came from strong family root backgrounds, too. Unfortunately, we live farther away from my parents than we do Mr. Incredible's family. Anyhoo, Growing up I can always remember having all of my aunts and uncles and 9 cousins gathering at Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving. Grammy would do the turkey and everyone else would bring the fixings. We would have pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie :bleh: apple pie, pecan pie, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, corn, cranberry sauce, gravy, homemade rolls, sparkling cider, wine, (all of my dad's family are catholic and strong practicing catholics to boot) My grandmother is an Italian, straight from Naples. We would have stuffed celery with peanutbutter and creamcheese, olives, and a jello salad, potato chips, macaroni salad, dressing, potato salad, deviled eggs, and I am sure I am missing more grand foods. All 29 of us would show up for Thanksgiving. WE did this for years. In fact, we gathered every Sunday after church at Grandma's house, ever since i was 2.
They have hosted sundays and Thanksgiving dinners. My grandmother's house saw 4 children grow and then lived through their children. My grandmother is now 94 years old and she still keeps an immaculate home and her mind is sharper than mine. She is a fit strong woman. When my grandfather died, when I was 22, the festivities stopped at their home. Now my parents and his siblings rotate the holidays.
Here is a typical Thanksgiving morning and the traditions are still being carried on by my sister and her 3 children and my brother and his 2 children.
When we awake we are awaken by the smell of turkey in the oven and bacon on the stove and my mom and dad busying themselves in the kitchen. There is commotion but it is an energy of happiness and chaos. LOL. My dad has the Thanksgiving parade on. He is always so excited about us watching the parade. I hated watching the parade as I became a teenager, but now I find myself forcing my own children to watch the parade as well. We are made a nice hearty breakfast and everyone greets each other with a Happy Thanksgiving and a kiss. I love the bustle of the holidays.
We have always always eaten our Thanksgiving on china, all the good silverware and glasses and serving dishes come out. We always got a new Thanksgiving outfitt to wear and we always dressed nicely for dinner. This was even when we were younger we had plates to eat on. The only time that my grandfather ever saw the Kitchen sink or new where it was located was Thanksgving afternoon. He did the dishes. This is a feat because he was very old fashion. A woman does what a woman does. He would come home from work, sit down at the dinner table and yell, Jane, bring me a drink< in bounces grandma with a nice cold ice tea!.
once dinner was through and everything was cleaned up, out came the desserts in procession. My aunt Jolene always made all of the pies, we had coolwhip and icecream. Yummy! Then everyone was comatosed probably a carb coma and Grandma would always get out this old guitar that used to be my Uncle John's and she would strum it and sing Country Road, Take me home. By John Denver. Once the men were sprawled out and ensured that every peice of the floor was secure; Grandma would take all of us grandchildren, she would push some in a stroller until we grew old enough to walk, down her road, what we did call Country road. WE would also stop and pick Cat tails and pussy willows. By the time we came back to the house, there was laughter and bags of change would hit the table. OH OH, the annual Thanksgiving poker games would start! I so, wanted to get old enough so I could play. I believe because my parents were the only members is why I never did play. But, I would always watch my gramp play. I loved him so. During this time everyone would make Dagwood sandwhiches. Remember the comic strip Blondie? A dagwood sandwhich was bread, meat, bread meat bread. So, it was bread, turkey, bread, turkey bread, and gravy on top.
As I grew older some of the fun was gone because I was now asked to cook, clean and clean. LOL. When I married Mr. Incredible I was so shocked how different his thanksgivings were from mine. My first Thanksgiving married was spent in Texas. I had this big huge dinner made was so excited to begin our own traditions. Mr. Incredible's mom lived in Texas also. We were having Thanksgiving there. It was so different. I was so dis heartened and home sick. Janice had bought our Thanksgiving dinner from Albertson's. Pie included. We also ate on paper plates. I have to say I was mortified and so sad. This is a special dinner. The next few years we spent Thanksgiving in Georgia with Bill's Uncle Danny. Still paper plates and different foods graced the table but the commonality was LOVE and FAMILY! I have to say after about 6 years of these Thanksgivings I have grown that they are now my children's traditions. I have been SOLOMONIZED. This is a good thing. There is no reason why we have to stress and go all out. We dont have to. NO one has to spend hours in the kitchen cooking before hand or hours in the kitchen cleaning afterwards. I have taken a bit from both and found I can have shortcuts. I think I have found a happy medium between both traditions. We rarely spend Thanksgiving at our home. Whenever we have Thanksgiving in our home, we always eat on plates and I put out a nice table cloth and we do eat on our china and break out the fancy glasses. We used to eat on our china and fancy silverware and glasses every friday night. This was my night to teach the children manner and proper etiquette, in hopes that we could eat at finer restraunts besides McDonald's. Since, child number 4, I have gotten rid of my dining room table and packed my china away. NO matter where we are for Thanksgiving. I do have to eat my dinner on a real plate and skip the paper plate. I dont mind washing a dish. My children do not watch the parade and they do not eat olives from their fingers and they do not care for the stuffed celery. I go home and my neices and nephews and cousins all do. It makes me smile that this is how I was raised and a little sad that my children don't care to. They don't have the same excitement that I had when I watched the parade and they all hate olives but they will eat the celery only if it is stuffed with peanutbutter.
Our thanksgivings here in NC, if we are home, consist of the annual Fort Mill Football game in Tega Cay. My children look forward to it. Most of the time we spend our Thanksgiving with Mr. Incredible's family. It is fun and my memories of Thanksgiving is that of always over eating, being stuffed and love. We love being with both sides of our family. I wish my family was closer. My children wish they lived closer to Grandma and papa. Every time we go home, they love being there. They also love being with Mr. Incredible's side of the family too! They love their Tennessee cousins! Family we are so blessed to be loved and to have such strong family ties.