BOUNTIFUL BLESSINGS
Our assignment this week is to blog about your plans for Thanksgiving Day.....share your day in any creative form.
Wanna hear a dirty little secret??
I hated Thanksgiving for twenty-five years!!!!
Oh, that just sounds so bad. It's not that I hated the family gathering, even though one of my older brothers could make me hate that. It's not that I mind what it represents. No, it's simply a case of hating the food my mother served. My mom understood and would let me have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich which would cause my paternal grandmother to shreik! My picky tastebuds could oh so upset the relatives who felt a child should be made to eat what was put in front of them. Needless to say, I hated Thanksgiving.
My childhood contained two good Thanksgivings. The first one was when I was nine. I had just had major surgery on my stomach and was released from the hospital the day before Thanksgiving. Thanks to this surgery, I was excused from the table and nobody fussed over my eating habits. That was such a blessing.
The next one was when I was sixteen. The year before had been filled with tragedy, so Thanksgiving was a quiet meal. A good friend of mine stopped by and asked if I could join him in his Thanksgiving. I was granted permission and joined my friend as we went to keep another sixteen year old friend company.
This other friend was alone. He was left with a frozen turkey dinner to heat for himself. I remember how sad I felt for him that his parent couldn't be there and he had no other family to share it with. It made me realize how fortunate I was even though I still hated the food. As for three teenagers alone on a holiday, we rejoiced in friendship and had a nice evening regardless of no feast.
It was many years before I learned just why Thanksgiving caused my skin to crawl. At twenty-five, I had dinner at my fiance's parents' home. Wow, what an eye opener! I loved the food! I really, really loved the food! That's when I connected that I just hated my mother's traditional table. At that point, I vowed to myself that I would never subject a child of mine to a terrible Thanksgiving feast.
For each of my children's first Thanksgivings, I served a variety of foods so they could sample many textures and tastes. I can't remember the exact menu for the first child as it was many years ago. For my youngest, I prepared over forty dishes. We had a large gathering that year, and I made sure that there was at least four favorites for everyone coming. We all had such a wonderful celebration. I had learned to love Thanksgiving.
Since then, as a family, we have decided on what will be served. Everyone helps out preparing the meal. Last year, we had the more traditional meal with the Turkey and such, but afterwards, the kids and my spouse said even though it was very good, why can't we have sushi? Could we please serve our favorite foods? And not what Martha says is good?
So this year, to my MIL's great consternation, we will be having a large feast for five with a twenty-four pound turkey (George wanted the largest one he could find), lobster tail (weren't the Pilgrims in Mass.?), and salmon (the family's favorite fish). Along with a variety of side dishes. I did convince them to skip the sushi as we have enough on the menu, lol.
Grandma wants her cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and mince meat pie and she will get them. Only my spouse will join her in these dishes and George will help with the pumpkin pie. We will also have apple pie and ice cream, yum.
We will eat earlier then Grandma likes, but I have to scoot off to work after the meal. Some jobs don't allow days off even if they are considered holidays. All in all, it will be a nice holiday and hopefully, my spouse and kids can go play all afternoon and evening. I will have the following two days off but my poor spouse will be on a forty-eight hour shift. We actually have it pretty good and can work around our crazy schedules.
My prayers will be for all in our armed services that won't be able to share a feast with their loved ones. I hope the Lord protects them this season, so they come back and share many Thanksgivings with their families in the years to come.
Blessings everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Vicki | 
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Sorry to hear that you are sick. It seems to be going around. Almost everyone I talk to is sick or has been sick.
We have been planning to attend the cactus class but it's looking like we probably won't due to the weather.
Take it easy and get well soon!!!!!!! : )
Charity