I'm sure you all have your own Thanksgiving stories, this is one of mine.
The year of the rubber turkey was the year I spent Thanksgiving morning by myself with five children under the age of 11 and only one oven. After sliding the turkey in and out more than a dozen times to cook other parts of the meal, entertaining bored children and chasing down the neighborhood dog pack the feast was finally complete.
When Dad finally arrived the actual meal lasted almost fifteen minutes, ten of which were spent trying to carve an overcooked rubber-like turkey carcass. After a laborious morning cutting wood for the "church" service project, Dad needed to lie on the floor, the children happily driving matchbox cars over his limbs.
Left at the table my eyes glazed over as I stared at the stacks of dirty dishes and the half carved turkey and I seriously questioned the purpose of the holiday. Try as I might, the only gratitude came when I was able to dump the turkey into the garbage and no one asked what happened to it.
Ten More Silly Tales:
1) The year I had four ovens spread between four apartments and everything was ready at the same time.
2) Watching slides and singing, "There's no business like show business..." with my brother in the big white spotlight on the wall.
3) My brothers Thanksgiving birthday party where we all dressed up like pilgrims and Indians and had a turkey shaped cake. (Don't we have some slides of this, somewhere?)
4) The year I gave myself permission to let Marie Callender's prepare everything, all I had to do was pick it up.
5) Cuddling in blankets and watching the Thanksgiving Day parades with my kidlets.
7) The first year we took Tom Hanks advice and roasted our turkey upside down, talk about moist.
8) Watching my grandchildren drive their parents bonkers and using paper plates!
9) Being snowed in with a really good book.
10) This year, may be the best yet, we will be guests instead of hosts.
Do you have a story tucked away? What was your silliest memory?
Aren't you lucky no one asked what happened to it?
ReplyDeleteWe don't do Thanksgiving here in Australia (although we're trying it out at our place, fingers crossed!), so I'm loving hearing all the stories about how people are spending the holiday. It's a lovely day to read blogs--the web's full of happy memories and things everybody's grateful for!
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