Thanksgiving

Talking to a friend this evening on the phone made me think about all my Thanksgiving dinners. Every year for as long as I can remember my mother always made a great Thanksgiving dinner. I would love to help her bake pies and make stuffing for the turkey. The whole house would smell so good with the smells of roasting turkey or fresh baked pumpkin pies. She taught me so much about how to cook and that it wasn’t just about the meal but the love that you put into it and how great it is to have shared it with your friends and family. I would pull out the fine china and the good silver to set the table. I always sat at the head of the table and just look at it before the on slot of hungry family moved in to mess it all up.
I moved away from my hometown in Northeastern PA in October of 1994 and since then I have hosted Thanksgiving. 1994 was my first time cooking such a big meal alone. It was a bit stressful because all I could hear coming from the kitchen doorway was “That’s not how my mother does it”. Oh how sick I got hearing that phrase over and over again. I stopped it by turning and stating calmly and as nicely as I could “No, that is how my mother does it”!
So much has changed since that first Thanksgiving Day. I now have a new life two beautiful girls and another Thanksgiving dinner before me to cook. I’ve gone over the shopping list to see what I have and what I have to still get. Keren I’m sure will want to be right there with me this year wanting to help and learn. I only hope I teach her as well as my mother taught me and that she can find the same great enjoyment and satisfaction in creating a day that is rich in traditions and as full of love as I have found. I know some day both my girls are going to be face with that dreadful phrase “That’s not how my mother does it” and I hope they know enough to stand their ground and say “No, that is how my mother does it”!