Thanksgiving Ruminating

Meredith got me thinking about Thanksgivings past and present. I am almost compulsively traditional. Growing up in the Navy, my parents made sure we had traditions at home that were the same wherever we lived--something we could count on. Thanksgiving traditions mostly revolved around food. ;) I never liked dressing, but smelling onions and celery boiling and cornbread baking made it Thanksgiving. I added a tradition after I got married. Mike and I neither one like the green bean casserole with those brown onion thingies on top, so I got to looking for a substitute recipe and landed on "Dill Green Beans." Now I have to smell them for the holiday to arrive!

We also usually had guests, even if they weren't blood-related, a tradition Mike and I continued when we lived in Idaho. And I always watched the Charlie Brown special, even as a grown-up before I had kids. I just love watching Snoopy pass out the plates and napkins.

My favorite Thanksgiving memory is our first one spent in Arkansas after my dad retired from the Navy. I was in the 8th grade, and had never spent Thanksgiving with relatives. We were so excited to be able to have my Mom's whole family come. Back in the day, we didn't get the whole week off, so I was at school on Wednesday when it started to snow!!! Big, huge, beautiful flakes. I sat behind Kevin Poole, the new boy from Arizone, in just about every class, and we both were thrilled to see actual snow falling outside the window. The teacher let us all crowd around the window until they dismissed us early and sent us home. Mom swore her brothers and sister to secrecy about the snow, so her Dad and Mom would still come, and it worked! They all came. I can still see Papa's face as he got out of his car. We ended up with about 6" of snow, at least. The power went off for a while, and Mom and Aunt Melody were worried about the turkey getting cooked, so they wrapped it in foil and stuck it in the wood-burning stove!!! I loved it--it was Little House on the Prarie all over again. Matt went walking in the woods with a bunch of them and tried to shake a branch to make snow fall on everyone...guess who it fell on? Yep, himself! Classic. That was a great Thanksgiving.

This year we're in Texas with Mike's family. Mike's sister Jeannie and her family are going to visit her husband's family tomorrow, so we're fixing turkey and dill green beans and chicken & dumplin's (a Sandusky family tradition) and all the rest for Mike's mom. It'll just be the 5 of us and Mamaw, so not a big crowd, but we'll have a big feast and hearts full of big thanks. God has blessed us way more than we deserve.

"Thank the Lord because He is good. His love continues forever." Psalm 107:1