Happy Thanksgiving! Today the house smells like pumpkin pie and the thing I'm most thankful for is that I've had more help cooking the dinner than I expected. Soon we'll be getting out fancy plates, and this evening the doorbell will be ringing (probably early. My relatives are a little shaky when it comes to what the phrase `on time' actually means).
It's funny how much the smell of pumpkin pie reminds me of Thanksgivings past. Traditions have a way of binding the years together so for a few moments you slip through the crack between time and feel the comfortable ghosts of the past rattling around the kitchen with you.
So what sort of holiday traditions do you all have? Do you ever feel memories close enough that you could almost slip through time? What brings it on? A smell, the touch of a certain fabric, or something else entirely?
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
My parents and I had turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, succotash, Portuguese sweet bread buns, and apple pie this year. Some years we've had more variety, but our appetites have diminished. Some years we invited my aunt and uncle, and cousins when they still lived in town, but we gradually stopped by mutual agreement. More recently we'd invite friends who live alone that we were afraid would have Thanksgiving alone. This year, like last year, it's just us. We aren't around friends who don't have their own families to eat with. Besides, it's gotten to where Dad prefers a turkey roast to a full turkey. There isn't as much stuff, but it isn't as tiring to cook. {Smile}
ReplyDeleteHoliday traditions include watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and sharing the turkey with Valentine, our cat. Val insisted on begging turkey from Dad was fixing the turkey roast. Turkey is one of his favorite foods. {BIG SMILE}
A.E.B.
That is really sweet that you've been inviting people who might have to spend Thanksgiving alone. :) I can see how cutting down from a full-scale turkey would give more time to enjoy the day.
ReplyDeleteWe have a cat, Banjo, who likes to beg off everyone. :) He's an outdoor cat who thinks the only purpose for people to leave the house is to feed him.
Yeah, sharing Thanksgiving and other family holidays has been a nice tradition. {Smile}
ReplyDeleteDad says he just doesn't have the energy to fisx a full turkey anymore. Especially not when we only have to feed three people and a one cat. {Smile}
That's neat about Banjo. Val's an inside cat. We're too close to the street and cars go down it too fast for an outside cat to safe. {resigned smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
That would be a good reason to keep Val inside. Our only indoor animal is a Siamese fighting fish named Seshamaru.
ReplyDeleteIf you live where it's safe to have animals outside, that's great. In our case, we've found that as quiet as our neighborhood seems, our cats live longer if they're indoors. {Smile}
ReplyDeleteFortunately, Valentine seems to be used to being indoors. He rarely tries to go out, which is good. The last time he did get out, Mom had a terrible time catching him and bringing him back in. {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin