Saturdays are for Stories: Thanksgiving

As long as I can remember Thanksgivings were spent mostly with my Grandpa and Grandma Church.  It seemed as though for a majority of my years we always lived in an area that was relatively close to them.  Thanksgivings were always with them and my dad's family.  There were a few years that we were at my mom's side of the family but they lived much further away and it wasn't a common occurrence.

Thanksgivings were always big, many people, and lots and lots of food.  My dad's side of the family were very well versed on the culinary things in life and always took the time to make wonderful and unique dishes each year.  We had our traditional dishes that were always there but there was always a little different stuff from different sources to go along with those things.






My dad had two brothers and one Sister and they all had families.  My father was the middle boy and his sister was the youngest.

My uncle Charles was the oldest of the boys and he was married to Joyce they had two boys.  Tim the oldest of my two cousins was several years older than me and seemed as if he was the tallest of everyone in the family.  Anthony was Charles and Joyce's youngest son and he was older than me also and was a bit of a book worm.  In today's terms he would have been a computer geek, problem was there weren't any computers that we could get our hands on so books, science, etc is what  I remember him being most prolific in.  I remember models of dinosaurs in his room on bookshelves and I am pretty sure Anthony is the first person I ever saw with a Radio Shack 101 in 1 electronic experiment kit you could do all kinds of neat things with those and probably what made me ask for years for one of my very own.  I did get one of those several years later.

My uncle Johnny was the youngest of the boys and was married to Brenda.  Johnny and Brenda had one daughter Betty Jean and a son John Mark.  They were both younger than me by several years.  I remember spending a lot of time with them over the years also.  Not only at holidays but at different times during the year.  I always looked forward to the holidays.  They were always good times and I don't remember there ever being anything but fun times.  There was never any conflict or arguments among any one at any of these functions that I can ever remember.  I say that only because I have seen this type of thing happen at family functions in other places before over the years.  I didn't have that exposure in my own family, I am thankful for that.

My aunt Brenda was the youngest of all them.  I always remember her right in the middle of baking and cooking and setting up and getting everything ready right along with Grandma.  Brenda married Mel and they had a daughter they named Sarah.  I have always liked the name Sarah.  Sarah is significantly younger than me.  I am now an old man and I think see is just barley in her twenties.  If you haven't notices by now, I had two aunt Brenda's in the same family.  I always called them aunt Brenda don't remember ever having different names for either one of them.  Some how they always seemed to know which one I was talking to, I would just say aunt Brenda and the one that I was speaking to would always be the one to answer me.

That brings me to my family.  My dad Jim, the middle boy in the family married my mother Sue and had me and my brother Michael.  My dad always liked making the deserts and candy the most.  He could make anything but that seemed to be what he enjoyed making more than anything else.  We would always load up food and take it to where ever we were having Thanksgiving dinner that time.

We had our get togethers at everyones house at one time or another.  Sometimes it would be at grandma and Grandpa's other times at Charles, Johnny's, or at our house.  Later down the road we had it at Mel and Brenda's and that became the primary location for all of our Thanksgiving feast.

Each time we would get there in plenty of time before it was time to eat.  2 O'clock was the tradition and that is when we would all set down and have dinner.  We would pass the food around and take a little of this and that and fill our plates with all of the good stuff.  We would set and eat and talk about all of the things that were going on.  Sometimes there would be stories about things in the past or family members.  Other times stories about events that had or were happening in each others lives.  This is how I learned about my Grand Parents life and all of the things they lived through during their lives and the things that they were thankful for.

When we were younger we all took time after we ate and the kids would go play in some form or fashion.  This was always the best time as we would always come up with something fun to do and play until it was time to go home.  It was a special time for all of the family to come together and enjoy all of the things that we were blessed with and to share some of those things with each other.  We would play tag football or tag and run around for a lot of the afternoon until it was time to go home.

When it was time to leave we all would gather up any left overs and take a little extra with us to take back to the house.  The were always fond times and will never be forgotten.  This is the time of year that we should take time to reflect on all of the things that we thankful for and have.  We should be thankful all of the time but this time of year is an opportunity for us to gather together with those around us and share in our thankfulness.  Time to eat to much food and enjoy each others company.  We don't know how many of these moments we will have in the future, we should take advantage of them now.  I know longer have my Grandpa or my Grandma on either side of the family to have Thanksgiving dinner with and my father has been gone for 20 years now but I am thankful for the times that we were together and I intend to do the same with my wife and children.  We can never make to many memories.  Have the happiest of Thanksgivings to you and your families.

What are you doing this Thanksgiving?