Thanksgiving Traditions

It all started the year we got married. My husband was watching The Food Network and he saw their Thanksgiving dinner special. There was a recipe for turkey and of course they brought the most beautiful browned turkey out of the oven. He wanted us to try it. Keep in mind, until that point my experience with turkey had always been seeing it already sliced, on my plate.

We broke tradition and stayed home that year instead of going to my parents house. Thinking back now I am sure it must have broken my parents hearts although they understood. I don't even think we invited anyone to join us for that turkey out of fear that we really would mess it up and then we would have to worry about how to feed more than ourselves on the holiday.

Needless to say, the turkey was fine. It was awesome. Beautiful. Browned just like on tv. And we took a picture. I was standing there in overalls looking very country bumpkinish. We still have the picture but that was before our days of digital cameras so it is an actual print. It is an ancient relic.

At any rate, once we knew we could cook a turkey with some degree of success we started inviting our friends to join us. Mostly it was people that we knew from work that didn't have family in town or were single with nowhere to go. We started calling it our "Family Feast" and these friends became family.

We have now been doing this for, well, this is our eighth year. During that eight years two of my three sisters have moved away so my parents now join us at our home for the family tradition. The same people still come every year as this is now their tradition as well.

Some families have a tradition that they play a game of family football in the backyard after dinner. Some families go together to the shelter to feed the homeless. Our tradition is to drink wine. And LOTS of it. The first year that we started the wine tradition we completely emptied the wine fridge. We started off with the really great stuff and by the time we were done even the not so great stuff tasted great.

We have learned over the years when our friends ask what they can bring I don't bother telling them the easy stuff like rolls or salad. I tell them wine. It seems that we have never had a bad Thanksgiving yet, although I credit that more to the company we share than the wine we drink, but wine never hurts.

We do have to be careful with the wine though- one year we drank so much before dinner that we nearly burned down the dinner table. That was the first year we lived in this house (would have been Thanksgiving 2005) and although we had a brand new dining room table that seats like eleven million people we didn't have enough chairs. So we dragged out our office chairs. The kind with wheels. One of our best friends sat in the chair and as he was reaching across the table (I think for the wine bottle) his wheels went out from under him, he slipped a bit and knocked over a burning candle. It didn't fall all the way over, thankfully, and just spilled wax around, but it was a learning lesson. I bought more chairs to go around the table. Bet you thought I was going to say we drank less wine before dinner! No way!

One year I was very sentimental and we had an extraordinarily large crowd of friends. I asked everyone to go around the table and say one thing they were thankful for. That didn't go over so well as I was the only one that took it seriously so that has actually not become part of my tradition. So let me just say in this forum, this year I have so much to be thankful for I don't even know where to start. I am thankful that we still have jobs in this economy. I am thankful that I have not one but two beautiful daughters. I am thankful that although Sam came early she is healthy and home with me. I am thankful that I have a wonderful husband who loves me and does his best to help me. I am thankful that I have a loving family.

This year what are you thankful for or what are your family traditions? Share! Share! Share!

Comments

[Mrs M]

Jenn - What a lovely post. This year I am thankful for my health, my family and the self control I have when dealing with Cruella!

[Crys]

That sounds wonderful! I'm excited to start up whatever traditions we're going to start this year. I've never been able to create any since I graduated from high school because I was always on the move or here and there.

And that's a great idea about the wine! I usually ask people to bring mixers/sodas. But I'll have to hit up my wine buddies with some wine requests now.

[darla]

Jenn,
I am thankful for my family, since I have been out here in lala land, I have been missing you all way too much. Thank you to you guys for the ability to come home for Christmas! The girls don't know we are coming yet, but everyone else in ohio does. Love you, darla