Thanksgiving Memories

We all have those fond memories of Thanksgivings of yore.  And heaven knows, our family meals rarely turned out to be perfect (hark, is that the sound of a smoke detector going off??), but I still remember them with lots of love and happiness.

We always woke up extra early on Thanksgiving Day to help Mama in the kitchen.  We started our bird early in hopes of it being done by lunchtime.  We always ate Thanksgiving dinner as our lunchtime meal and then just grazed on it throughout the rest of the day.

As the morning passed, we inevitably turned on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade to watch the big balloons, marching bands, celebrities singing and dancing, and of course, the decked out floats, including the most special float of all, the one carrying Santa himself.

Daddy usually stayed out of the kitchen.  He was always more than content to watch football as the smells from the kitchen started to fill the house.

I remember that Thanksgiving dinner was the only time of year that we made homemade biscuits.  I mean, Christmas didn't even rate them, so they were definitely something to look forward to.  We used our grandma's recipe, and they were a wonderful treat.  What we didn't eat that day, the next morning our mom would split open and slather them with butter, then brown them in the oven.  We called them "wheelies", and they were extra good too!

Looking back now, some of our Thanksgiving menu items were a little non-traditional.  We always had pinto beans, potato salad, and deviled eggs, for instance, but hey, we grew up in the south.  Daddy still makes them for Thanksgiving dinner every year even now.  And noticeably absent from our dessert table were pumpkin and pecan pies, even though they are super-traditional for most families.  No one in our family really liked those that much, so our pies usually consisted of coconut, chocolate, and even lemon meringue, and always two of each.  Again, we used grandma's recipes, which always produced more than one pie.   Trust me, no one complained.

After our dinner and dessert, the rest of the day was always reserved for putting up the Christmas tree.  Daddy would shimmy up to the attic and slide down one box of Christmas decorations after another. Once it was all downstairs, we would spend hours putting the tree together, adding lights and tinsel, and then hanging ornaments that were both handmade as well as those passed down over the years through our family.  It was always a special time, and one that I remember always looking forward to.

This year, as I sit here the night before Thanksgiving to remember these holidays past, I will look forward to helping make a big family meal again tomorrow.  We are, in fact, taking grandma's coconut custard pie recipe for a spin.  And now that I think about it, I think I will try to sneak in some time to watch a little Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade too.  I hope you make a little time to take a walk down memory lane, too. It's something we can all be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours!