How I love Thanksgiving!!  The start of the winter season.  Hot chocolate, snowmen (can you tell I grew up around Buffalo?) , Christmas carols...just a festive time of year that I have always loved.

Growing up, holidays were traditionally spent in our home.  Relatives came for dinner and food was abundant.  I remember fondly the pies-yum!!  Lemon meringue and chocolate pudding pie were favorites. 

One of my favorite things was after Thanksgiving dinner.  My aunts would crowd into the extremely small kitchen that we had to clean up.  Hand washing only- as we did not have a dishwasher.  Then after the table was cleared, the chairs were set back up, the tv turned to football and the tournament began!!  My family was extremely fond of poker and that was the game of choice.  After many years of watching, I was finally allowed to play in my later teenage years.  We played high stakes-pennies only!!  The best part was at the very end of the game.  All pennies were in the pot and everyone drew a card-highest card took them all home.  Of course, they were all brought back out the following year!!