thanks giving?

i remember the days when thanksgiving was this huge family gathering, where all the relatives came to one house, watched football and ate food for what seemed like hours. after dessert the women would sit around and decide whose house was going to get christmas dinner, was it going to be on christmas eve, christmas noon or the sunday before christmas. what was the price range for the kids' toys, what did the kids need, want. and was there going to be presents for the adults this year? as i grew older we ended up the adults drew names for who they would buy for. so the kids got gifts and each adult got one gift. my relatives were always boring and got things like socks and slippers and pot holders. my grandma would always make the gravey and now that she is gone the gravey is not the same. each year a different aunt tries to make it, and each year we mention how much we miss grandmas gravey and fudge.

this will be the first year since 1992 that i will be in my own house making my own thanksgiving dinner for my own family. the first year i will not be making the drive back home to see all the relatives and friends and spending the long weekend eating and catching up on lives and news. i guess now that i am 41 years old it is time to make my own traditions and my own place that my kids want to come back to every year. but this year, there will be no extended family around the table. this year it will be friends, neighbors, other people just like us that can't make the trip across the state(s) to see family.

maybe this year as we are all sitting around the table passing mashed potatoes and green beans and rolls we can each share a special thought of who made the best gravey when we were growing up. what was the best dessert ever, how did grandma make that fudge? this year, write down the recipies before they get lost to old age, write down the names of the aunts and uncles that have died before the next generation forgets who they are and why we should know them. lets make this year a giving of thanks to those people sitting around our tables.