....at Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is usually a time of food and family and laughter and thankfulness.  Our family's Thanksgiving is no exception.  My parents are the picture of hospitality, so pretty much every Thanksgiving was blessed with extra guests.  My Dad's old weight lifting buddy from Milwaukee, who moved to this area as well, would join us with his lovely family.  The Grandchildren as they grew older would bring their various dates or friends from high school who perhaps they thought could really use a dose of our family. There would be relatives from the other sides of the family that would join us as well. 
My Momma may not have always had matching chairs,  plates, glasses or silverware... but she ALWAYS had room.

I remember being young and all the preparation. The house would smell like bleach and pine-sol the week before. The excitement of company coming over! Then the smell of delicious pies and heavenly food. I LOVED the leftover pudding from the pies. My Momma makes the best pie crust! Oh man I'm hungry!!  I think my very favorite memory is how she would make the turkey dance! This HUGE turkey, she would grab him by the wings and make him do a little dance on the cutting board for me. (I made her do it last year!)  We would pull out the "good" silverware, back when there weren't over 30 of us! I remember it was my job to get out the old fancy box and wipe off each piece and set the table. I'm the baby of five... I got the easy jobs. To this day my Mom makes me bring... "milk" to the dinner!  That's going to change, we're having it at my sisters' this year. Oh well at least I "milked" it into my forties! Pun intended.

The smells of Thanksgiving always take me back to being young, and fortunately, always bring me back to wonderful memories. It was my Momma who set the tone for our Holidays. Thanksgiving was no exception. She did it right! She loves to cook and she loves to laugh and she loves to have family and friends close by.  My Mom is a night-owl and so are all five of us kids I believe... We always would stay up late into the evening and play games and talk and laugh.  A night to put aside all the chaos that happens in big families.  We had PLENTY of chaos in ours! But we had plenty of Love too.  My Momma always served that up in plentiful helpings!