This time of year I want to take that Norman Rockwell picture of the Thanksgiving Dinner and make it into a dart board. I worry that my children do not have memories like this. Or even memories like I have of thanksgivings past. No house full of relatives, no sitting at the kids table. No Granny swing into the driveway, blue tinted hair just visible over the steering wheel, hoping out of the car to open the trunk, bringing out homemade zucchini relish, bread and butter pickles, and blackberry jam, fluffy dinner rolls, their tops, perfectly golden brown.
We were too far away from family to make it home for Thanksgiving. I tried to make it a special day. We invited other people who were away from home or from another country, to come for dinner. If it was even just the four of us I always put a tablecloth on the table and used the china. I decorated with whatever thing the kids had made at school, placemats, apple turkeys etc.
As the girls got older they helped me plan the meal. Two years ago we tried Cornish game hens last year a duck. Boy that was scary, I opened the oven to check on the duck and it was sitting in a bath of boiling grease 2 inches deep. I got the fire extinguisher out of the cupboard and sat it by the over, hopping we would not be the headline in tomorrow’s paper.
So, today I will dust off my mother’s china, Kathy and I will make pies, this evening Brenda will arrive and Mike will come home from work. Tomorrow we will all be together. And for that, I am truly thankful .
