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Thanksgiving 2013 brings a
new experience for Dick and me. For the first time ever, we are not sharing our
Thanksgiving meal with family.
We
are eating at the home of new friends! I am looking forward to this fresh
approach to the holiday. While I miss our family, I welcome this privilege of
sharing another family’s traditions and soaking up the blessings God never
fails to pour out.
While it is a day of remembering to give thanks, as I grow older I also find myself reminiscing about past Thanksgivings. When I was a child, since
Thanksgiving and turkey hunting season coincided, the men tramped through the
woods all morning looking for the “big one”, while my mom, aunt, and
grandmother cooked up a huge meal. We kids watched the parade on TV, played
board games, and wiped the steam from the windows in the hopes of seeing a
thick blanket of snow cover the ground.
The sweet and savory aromas wafting
from the kitchen lured us there. You had
to time it just right to claim the prized turkey liver, sneak a sliver of
pumpkin or mincemeat pie, or be on hand to lick the beaters after the mashed
potatoes were whipped up to a fluffy, white mountain topped with melting butter.
For me, savoring a spoonful of mashed sweet potatoes crusted with golden-browned
miniature marshmallows or crushed pecans equaled dessert.
About mid-day the men would
return, rarely with a bird, and we would all sit down in my mom’s kitchen. Many
years we created a verbal “Thankful for” list by going around the table and voicing
our blessings before bowing our heads for grace.
With “Amen”, chaos erupted. We
dug into the feast that included everybody’s favorites—tangy cranberry sauce,
crushed crackers with gravy, green bean casserole, corn, cooked-in-the-bird
filling, baked stuffing, warm dinner rolls, egg noodles, coleslaw, fruit salad,
chocolate cream, lemon meringue, and the aforementioned pumpkin pie.
With marriages and births we
needed a larger space. Since my Aunt Jan had a dining room as well as a
kitchen, we moved to her house. For years we crowded in, with the overflow
seated in the living room around card tables. When our cousins from Delaware
began joining us, we outgrew Aunt Jan’s home and gathered in the basement of
the Lutheran Church. The old upright piano, comfy, secondhand couch, and plenty
of floor space made it a great location for our family.
As the years passed, married
grandchildren moved away or were obliged to attend their spouse’s family’s
Thanksgiving. Older loved ones spent Christmas with Jesus, leaving empty spaces
at the table. Our younger families began their own holiday traditions. Now,
instead on one huge meal, there are four or five smaller celebrations. Though saddened
by the loss of our tight-knit connections, the tradition of thanks continues in
ever-widening circles.
Where will you spend
Thanksgiving this year? Are you, like Dick and I, beginning new traditions? Or
will you be joining a gathering that has perpetuated for generations?
Wherever and with whomever
you celebrate the holiday, know that each of you is on my “Thankful for” list
as God has poured out His blessings on me this year through your many prayers
and thoughtful posts.
In that day you will say:
"Give thanks to the LORD,
call on his name;
make known among the nations
what he has done,
and proclaim that his name is exalted.
Isaiah 12: 4
Blessings!
Pam
©2013 Pamela D. Williams
