Thursday, November 22, 2007

Our Version of Thanksgiving Dinner

Sometimes, it is very difficult to live far away from our families. I miss waking up in my parents' home to the sounds of my mom and dad puttering around in the kitchen. My mom would have already prepared most of the side dishes and pies. My dad helps get the turkey roasting & carves it up when it's done. The sound of the mixer beating up some potatoes into mashed potatoes and the smells of turkey & stuffing. When I was growing up, my job was usually to decorate the table and make personalized place cards (no wonder I'm not a great cook!). We pulled out the table cloth & the fancy china to celebrate the occasion. In anticipation of our guests (either family or friends or both), we would light all of the candles and put on some soft music. I remember the smell of the bottom cabinet in my mom's china hutch where we kept the real silverware and the seasonal candles/decor. As my family gathers today without us, my heart is saddened... but I am equally determined to make each holiday a fun event filled with family traditions for my boys. I suppose I have always been a bit non-traditional and so our family traditions follow suit.

We celebrated our 3rd annual Thanksgiving Dinner celebration - EATING OUT! (I'm not a great cook & none of us enjoy the cleanup, plus it's not worth all of the time & energy to make a feast for 5 people... so we let the restaurant do all of the work for us!) Two years ago, we ate at the Black Eyed Pea and it was YUMMY. I'm not a big fan of turkey & I love choosing to eat ham or pot roast instead! Last year, we met my family in Branson to celebrate the holiday and we ate at a yucky old people buffet (no offense to any old people out there!). So, this year we went back to the Black Eyed Pea and it was just as good as we remembered.



Yummy!

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