Thankful Thursday-Thankful for Fond Thanksgiving Memories

If Christmas eve is the time to dream of sugarplums, then Thanksgiving eve is the time to dream of turkey with all the fixings. As a child, I could not wait to go to sleep the night before Thanksgiving knowing that the next morning I would awaken to the mouth-watering aroma of a big stuffed turkey slow roasting in the oven since 6 am. 

My grandparents,my father's parents, lived on the first floor of our two-family tenement house, below our home on the second floor, where many memorable Thanksgivings took place over the years. On Wednesday, the day before the big day, my grandmother was ready to prepare the dressing (she never called it stuffing) for the bird with all the ingredients that my grandfather and I had bought at the IGA, located walking distance from our home. The sweet smell of sautéing onions wafting up the stairway filled me with anticipation and the realization that the upcoming feast was near. As my grandmother  prepared the same tasty meat dressing that she made every year since I could remember, I kept her company in her tiny yet orderly pantry kitchen. Somebody had to be the taste tester, so it might as well be me!

  

Thanksgiving resembled a well-performed production in our family with everyone playing the same roles every year. My grandmother took care of the dressing, my mother took care of the vegetables and some pies, usually mincemeat, and apple,  my aunt took care of the sweet potatoes, the gravy, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie, my uncle, the wine, and my father cleaned, roasted, and carved the turkey. My cousin, the only other girl in attendance, and I usually took care of preparing our favorite hors d’oeuvres, cut-up  celery stuffed with plain cream cheese or peanut butter.

By the time my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins showed up at our home, my parents were bustling in the kitchen and  my brother and I were transfixed in front of the television watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We usually watched the entire parade, filled with floats from our favorite cartoons, and of course, all the marching bands, in anticipation of the first exciting appearance of Santa Claus!

At 1 pm, the awaited time had arrived and both the adult and kid’s tables were set with a bountiful display, and ready to welcome all the hungry and  thankful guests to share in their efforts. As with any well-prepared meal, we devoured every morsel in a flurry of eating, drinking, and conversation, and behold it was  finished much too quickly.

But not to worry because one of the reasons we ate at 1 pm was so that we could do it all over again later in the evening, with turkey sandwiches made on bulky rolls my father had picked up days earlier at Korbs bakery.

Between all the eating and cleaning up, of course the annual Thanksgiving day football game was a big draw for the men, as they sat in front of the television cheering and digesting.

As soon the women cleared the table of all the dishes, the board games appeared and we would play Trouble, UNO, and Monopoly, as well as any other popular games at the time, well into the evening.

 

Thanksgiving is a time to stop and take the time to be thankful for all the people we value in our lives now and to cherish the fond memories of those we have shared Thanksgiving with in our past. I will be forever grateful for everyone who shared in my family’s  past Thanksgivings and I will always look forward to each year with a thankful heart and a fond look back.