As you can see by the number of post, I am a truely prolific blogger. I am hoping to start doing this more but time has not really allowed me to so far. Enough of the bellyaching about time.
So the title, Thanksgiving, what does it mean. For most if conjures up the image of the traditional trukey feast. This is true for me also, but has more meaning than that for me. As I come from a fairly large family, being the 8th out of 10 children....yes my parents may have been a bit crazy for having 10 of us but in the end we all turned out okay. But back to what Thanksgiving means to me. Thanksgiving has always seemed to have been the main holiday that I remember in the family. Don't get me wrong, when I was small it was all about Christmas and nothing else but as I grew and understood it better the importance of Christmas as the main family holiday faded. We always had the gifts and such under the tree at Christmas time, but as you aged you came to understand that you were a part of a large family. I can truely say that while I remember special gifts and such I really do not remember Christmas as vividly as I remember some of the Thanksgivings. Some of this may stem from the age difference in the family with about 11 yrs between me and my oldest brother, so by the time I was old enough to know what Christmas was, they just wanted to stay in bed. I can remember playing a trumpet one morning to wake everyone up as me and my little brother and sister had decided it was late enough to only be told by my mom to go back to bed it was like 3 in the morning. Later when I was the teen and did not wnat to get up, I can remember being dragged from the bed by my little brother and sister as they wanted me to open my presents. That year I got my first stereo. Being 16 at the time, not sure that I should how greatful I was for it to my parents....that would not have been cool. Looking back on it and having now raised a son who is 21, I realize how much I truely owe my parents.....
Back to Thanksgiving though. This was the one holiday that I can remember it seemed like the family almost always all made it home for. The earliest memories where of that, the entire family including the older ones all being around and talking to each other. The eating contest they had now are family stores that have made their way into family lore. My 3 oldest brothers would take serving platters for plates and keep going back until they could not move. My mother would get up before the sun to make the turkey and all of the fixings and have them on the table for lunch.
As the family grew with the addition of spouses and grandchildren, the meal transformed into a potluck feastival. Everyone would bring a dish and my mother would prepare the turkey and the gravy, the 2 most important peices of the meal in my opinion. The meals also included family freinds and whomever others in the family invited. It was not unusual to walk into a room full of people and have a few sitting there that you had no clue who they were. Girlfreinds and boyfreinds were put through the ringer, as most of my family has a tendency to pick on anyone sitting near them. Some of them have turned it into a true art form. For the last 6 to 8 years the counts have ranged from the high forties to mid sixties for attendees.
A few years ago, my mother finally decided it was a bit much cooking for that many people (she was 73 at the time). There was talk of stopping the tradition and allowing each sub-family to start their own tradition. Needless to say, this did not go over big with the family. We moved the celebration between houses to keep it going over the next 2 years. I built a new house about 5 years ago, and one of the main building requirements was for the house to have an open floor plan with a large kitchen island. The plan was for Lisa and I to start throwing parties. The first one we did was the Thanksgiving lunch that year, with over 60 people at the party. While we have not had much oportunity to throw some of the parties we would like to throw, we have hosted the Thanksgiving party for 5 years now. It has been great. It is a lot of work, last year I cooked 4 or 5 12~14lb turkeys and made over 2 gallons of gravy for the event. I actually take the entire week of Thanksgiving off to cook for it. It is still a potluck event with great food being brought in by all. There are always new dishes to try and family favorites.
At my parents 57th Anniversay party on the 14th of November, I was reminded again as to how lucky we are to be able to have a tradition like our Thanksgiving party. We have evolved to about 4 gatherings a year and everyone always seems to have a good time catching up. It is funny as we all live with in 20 or 30 miles of my parents, but with life being as busy as it is, we do not always take the time to keep up with each other. I will say that we have always been there for each other and would do anything to help each other though. I really appreaciate the sacrafices my parents made for our family. I am sure there are times we made them want to jump in the car and drive off with out looking back.
So what does Thanksgiving mean to me? It means family and appreaciaion of family to me. It means looking around a room full of my parents, brothers, sisters, grandchildren and freinds and seeing smiles whereever you look. It means saying thanks to my parents for building such a great support system for their children and instilling the drive and morals to be who we are, not perfect but just who we are.
