Thanksgiving Thoughts

Hi! Thursday is Thanksgiving and with it is the official start of the Holiday Season. This year has flown by. I get a little nostalgic right around now. Remembering how Thanksgiving used to be like. You see when I was a kid Thanksgiving was one of my favorite holidays. Why? Well, I loved the food of course but it was also seeing my relatives as well.

For us our family get togethers were always at our Aunt June's house. She had a really large ranch style house. My uncle Lawrence was a quadriplegic from the Korean war and needed a large spread-out home so he could get around in his wheelchair. So logically everyone would meet up there. I would show up and immediately go to the TV to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade along with my cousins and siblings. The balloons, the floats, the general excitement in the air. Let's not forget the best part, at the end we got to see Santa. Seeing him officially started the Christmas season. That meant the countdown was on my friend.

While the kids were glued to the TV, the women would be in the kitchen continuing preparing the meal that they started working on the night before. The men would be in the formal living room talking about the football games they would watch. All of us Gen X kids know about the formal living room. The room every mom had that no one was allowed to go in and was for special occasions only. I loved hearing all of the voices of my relatives talking and laughing.

The smell was divine. I would purposefully not eat breakfast just so I could eat even more. Around noon the meal was ready, and we would gather around to feast on all of the delicious food. Every year I would compete with my brother on how many plates of food I could eat and every year I would lose. That boy could really pack the food in. Afterwards, the kids went outside to play while the adults watched football or took a nap.

The memories. What a wonderful time it was. Thanksgiving to me wasn't just about food. It was about family, love, tradition, and thankfulness. I am grateful for so many things but mostly for the memories of Thanksgiving growing up. They were always so special to me.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thank you for reading my blog. Goodbye for now. Take care and be well.