Our Thanksgivings Together

Looking back on Thanksgiving what do you remember the most? Rushing around gathering up the proper foodstuffs and preparing a perfect meal, beginning the day prior only to watch it all consumed and packaged up to be carried away in less than thirty minutes, a weeks worth of turkey sandwiches, the forgotten giblets baked in the little paper package within the turkey, I see you smiling but you know this has either happened to you or almost did—right? Or do you remember the large gathering of family and friends filling your house with love, laughter, and tears.

Cindy and I always put a lot of work into Thanksgiving, I always helped her with the turkey from picking it out at the store, getting it thawed, rinsed and making sure all the innards were removed, Cindy always fretted and fussed just knowing that something was going to fall apart, or one of her dishes was going to turn out horrible and end up the talk of the town, but her meals were always perfect, so perfect that I can’t even come up with one to tell you about just to give her a hard time, she invented green bean casserole in my opinion and her stuffing has always been to die for, and the most moist turkeys have always come out of her kitchen. These meals like I mentioned above began the day prior and were always gone in what seemed like a heartbeat.

We always had a houseful with the Kids and some of their friends, Friends of ours who shared this day with us made up for the lack of Cindy and I having any Family in town, our day was always filled with love, laughter, and tears and one of the most important things I remember about each of our Thanksgivings was when we joined hands around the table and received the blessing for this meal, then one by one each of us stated something we were thankful for, the things each of us were thankful for brought on a lot of the laughter and tears, but the gathering together of our bunch surely filled our home with love.

Now that we have moved to California the routine is a bit different, Cindy and her Dad share the kitchen, and as good a cook as Cindy is she still receives lessons from her Dad, Cindy is still fretting and fussing about the arrangements but her Dad is just smiling and reassuring her, because he knows as well as you that it is all going to be just fine, our first Thanksgiving here was last year, it was a reunion so to say with all of Cindy’s siblings attending, the house was packed and we all joined hands around the table to receive the blessing, Thursday the crowd will be smaller with a couple of her Brothers dining with us, Melissa (our Daughter) and her new Husband will be here making the crowd only about a dozen, Leg of Lamb has been added to the menu and I just know the turkey will be moist as ever, I had better check for the giblet package though, just so I can say that I helped.

One thing I remember about Thanksgiving is a time when I sat alone in my apartment with no one around, across town a young woman was doing the same thing as I, so needless to say after we got together and began sharing our Thanksgivings together, the thing I remember the most about this day is the warmth of having people you love sitting around you sharing with you what they are thankful for.