Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Ever since I can remember we always have had dinner with my Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. I am blessed to have family that live so close by so that I do have the fond memories of Thanksgiving dinner. For the majority of my life I had my Aunt and Uncle and cousins live in the house right across the street from me. I grew up with my cousins. They are all younger than me, but we played together constantly that they are more than cousins...They became like brothers and sisters.
Every Thanksgiving my Uncle has almost always been in charge of cooking the turkey. Us kids have enjoyed being involved with helping the "older cousins" with making he appetizers and desserts. The family recipes of stuffing, green bean casserole, and the ever curious cranberries... mostly canned. Never been that sure of cranberries... We tended to sometimes make hash brown casserole or mashed potatoes and gravy. DELICIOUS!!! Then of course the many different choices for desserts... pumpkin pies, cherry pies, apple pies, cheese cake, cookies, banana pudding, chocolate cream pie... You name it we probably had it. It was a elementary school kid's dream because no one ever really watched how much sugar we would inhale.
Before dinner us kids always were running around and driving everyone crazy, which as I have gotten older still happens with the younger kids. We always used our imaginations to figure out fun things to do while we waited for dinner time. My dad would go around with his video camera and filmed the chaos that was going on. Before dinner ALL of us would have to go around and tell each other what we were thankful for then we would pray. Once the turkey was carved it was a free-for-all. Everyone kinda going for it. Pure mayhem. After dinner we pull out the karaoke machine and belt out whatever music we have for it. The adults pull out a bottle of wine while cleaning the kitchen in preparation for phase two of the night while the guys sit around the tv watching football... Once it is time for dessert everyone fills their plate with a little bit of everything, which ends up being a HUGE plateful of sugar. Once stuffed till we cannot move we go onto our game part of the day. Sometimes crazy games of spoons where someone tends to come out a little injured, or family feud, or scattergories, tripoly....We play until late and the kids can't keep their eyes open.
This year, life will be a little crazy for my family. I like to think of tonight as the "calm before the storm." With Thanksgiving this Thursday for the next few days we are going to be busy preparing for it like no other. This year will be a very large thanksgiving dinner for my family since there will be about thirty of us coming together for dinner. Six of our family members/friends are coming from Tennessee and Georgia to join us and they will be staying at my parent's house. This means there will be ten of us here at my home for my nice five-day week-end. It will be a nice time from work, but I would not consider it a relaxing break. More like a very busy family/fun kind of week-end. As of now My parents and brother and I are offering our beds for our guests while we sleep on the couches/guest bed down stairs.... Not gonna lie, I am kinda gonna miss my bed, but luckily our couches are pretty comfy and since I am so short they are not at all that uncomfortable to sleep on.
So as much as I know this Thanksgiving is going to be a little like a tornado, I would not have it any other way. My family is the BEST!!!!!
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