by jphilo | Nov 24, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
Thanksgiving is all about tradition…at least at our house. Here are ten of our top traditions in the order in which they occur.
10. All the dog owners bring their dogs to keep the kitchen floor clean.
9. Generations (4 this year) mingle together creating new links in the chain that stretch into the past we can’t remember and toward the future we can not see.
8. Everybody brings appointed dishes for the meal…enough to feed a small army.
7. Once people begin arriving with their appointed dishes, it is imparetive for everyone to talk at the same time. All day long.
6. Except when chowing down handfuls of Fabulous Franklin Chex Mix to keep up our strength until the meal begins.
5. Everyone worries there won’t be enough food because we all plan to eat too much.
4. Certain members of the family guzzle Grandma Josie’s tapioca fruit salad. They are secretly pleased that some people don’t like it so the leftovers can be eaten for Christmas.
3. After the meal, we play games and games and games and games…
2. …after the chef pops the turkey carcass into a stock pot and sets it to simmer on the stove…
1. …and until we’ve digested long enough to make room for pie. With real whipping cream on top.
What are your family Thanksgiving traditions? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Nov 19, 2012 | Daily Life
Great-aunts Gladys and Ginny with Gladys’ daughter, Darlene
Thanksgiving’s this Thursday, and my mind keeps wandering to the holiday. Rather than fight the feeling, I’m going with it and making a list of Thanksgiving faves. Here goes.
- Favorite Thanksgiving childhood memory: Spending the day playing with my cousins and conspiring with them about how to persuade our parents to let us stay overnight together.
- Favorite Thanksgiving adult memory: The year Great-uncle Burnell (suffering from Alzheimer’s), his wife Ginny, and sister-in-law Gladys (both in their 90s) came for dinner. Burnell kept saying he had such a good time he wanted to give me a six million dollar bill. Ginny and Gladys argued about who spilled crumbs and couldn’t get over how well the paper napkins matched the linen tablecloth.
- Favorite Thanksgiving trip: Driving from Camp Crook to Le Mars during our South Dakota days. Every time we drove into a snowstorm between Mitchell and Sioux Falls.
- Favorite aroma: Waking up to the smell of the onions and celery sauteing in butter for the stuffing Mom was making.
- Favorite appetizer: Mom’s Franklin Chex Mix
- Favorite food: Mashed potatoes and gravy
- Favorite pie: Cherry
- Favorite tradition: Playing Catch Phrase with the fam
Okay, now it’s your turn. What’s on your list of Thanksgiving faves? Give into the feeling and leave a comment!
by jphilo | Nov 22, 2011 | Family
Two days until Thanksgiving. My to do list is growing exponentially, and I’m starting to panic. Since Tuesday is also the day for visiting Mom, I’m enlisting her in the action. Here’s what’s on the docket:
- Pick up Mom for dentist appointment at 10:00
- Stop back at brother’s house to pick up Mom’s suitcase
- Lunch somewhere fun
- Drive to Boone
- Stop at grocery store to pick up mince for pie
- Drive to Frasier to drop off Mom’s old metal kitchen stool at the sandblaster
- Listen to Mom tell stories about the old stool while we drive
- Bring Mom home for a nap before Judge Judy
- Watch Judge Judy
- Make Mom’s famous Chex Mix after Judge Judy
- Listen to Mom tell about getting the recipe for her famous Chex Mix while she watches me make it
- Fix supper
- Eat supper before Wheel of Fortune
- Watch Wheel of Fortune
- Listen to Mom tell Hiram that in the morning we’re making mince pie for Thanksgiving, but that there probably won’t be enough for him
- Play a couple rounds of Uno with Mom and listen to her tell Hiram that we made Chex Mix earlier in the day, but that there probably won’t be enough for him
- Say good night to Mom and remind her to get up early tomorrow to help make pies
- Set out the lard to soften for making pie crust in the morning
- Look forward to tomorrow and our drive to my sister’s house in Minnesota for Thanksgiving
Sure glad Mom will be here to help. No way could I get all this done without her.
by jphilo | Nov 27, 2008 | Current Events
Today, our Thanksgiving group of nine did a formidable amount of food damage. After we nibbled on Chex Mix, the relish tray, cheese and crackers and then gorged on turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and cranberries.
The damage control component of the day was the half hour walk squeezed in between the main course and dessert. What else explains how nine people could belly back up to the table and eat fifteen pieces of pie liberally topped with whipped cream? Fresh air and sunshine is worth its weight in pie is what I say.
The way I figure things, if I spend every waking hour of the next two days walking outdoors at top speed, the damage inflicted over the past twenty-four hours might be reversed. Of course unless everyone eats all the Chex Mix and leftover pie while I’m gone, I’ll come inside and resume my hand to mouth existence immediately. And if they eat like that, they’ll be in terrible shape by the end of our holiday weekend.
Since I’m wholly unselfish woman, I’ve come up with a solution that cancels out my overeating without putting the rest of the family at risk: I take my share of the leftover pie and Chex Mix and eat it while pounding out a few miles on my sister’s treadmill.
The idea of having the fam fawning extolling my selfless concern is quite repellant. So I won’t mention my damage control plan to them. Instead, I’ll sneak into the kitchen, nab the last piece of strawberry-rhubarb pie and a quart of Chex Mix, and power up the treadmill.
The fam doesn’t ever need to know how I sacrificed for their health. It could ruin their Thanksgiving, and I love them too much to heap guilt upon them. So please, don’t tell them how blessed they are to have me in their midst. They never need to know.
