Sunday, November 26, 2006

Let the Holidays Begin!



The holiday season has officially begun! We drove up the gorge to Mom and Dad's this weekend to have a second Thanksgiving meal. My Mom's Christmas Cactuses were in full bloom and were quite spectacular.


I'm such a spoiled duck when it comes to Thanksgiving. When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday. My mom and grandma and I would spend an entire day in the kitchen together preparing the meal for somewhere between 10 and 20 people, depending on the year. The men would all hang out in the living room eating snacks and watching football. We just don't get to do it that way anymore.


R's mom always has her big meal on Thursday, which means we wind up with my parents on the weekend. My sister winds up with her hubby's family on the big day and there's about a 50/50 chance that we'll see them on the weekend. (We didn't see them this year.)


This year, on Thursday my parents joined my dad's side of the family for a big family meal at my grandma's, and we didn't even know about it! It was a last-minute event and they didn't call us because they knew we were already committed otherwise, but I am not very happy about missing an opportunity to see some of my family members whom I haven't seen for two or three years.


Nonetheless, my mom and I got to spend Saturday puttering around her kitchen together, making all of our family's traditional Thanksgiving dishes - turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, bread stuffing, cornbread stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie, gravy, pineapple dip, etc. etc. And it was a gooood meal! My grandma even brought her special pickled beets.


Next year I think I will try to put together a family dinner like the old days. I would like that a lot better. I should get to do that once in a while!

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