Thanksgivings from my past

 Imagine waking up in the morning to the smell of a turkey that has been roasting all night and the sound of a radio playing music softly. Then as you get ready to get out of bed and you start to notice the cinimon rolls baking and the coffee already brewed.  You get up and get dressed and walk into the kitchen and mom asks you if you would like a cookie.  She has stayed up all night baking and cooking and preparing the thanksgiving feast.  After your cookie and milk mom says to go get a shower and get dressed for the family to arive at 1 pm. 

Once out of the shower and everyone is dressed and ready for the arrival of the family, mom puts freshed baked cinomon rolls on the table with milk and juice and goes to take a shower and clean up herself.  As she is closing the bathroom door she tells me to be carefull, but to base the turkey.  As the family sits around eating cinomon rolls and watching the Macy's thankgsgiving day parade, mom is singing in the shower and she sounds as happy as can be. 

My mother is not like what you hear of today, she doesn't get frustrated and stressed out over the holidays, at least if she did she never showed it.  She prided herself on how well she could do the feast and craved every smiling face and fat belly sitting around watching football after the feast.  Mom did have things set about when and how things were done.  There was structure to her day.  Dinner was at 2 pm every holiday and if you wanted to eat, you showed up at 1 pm to sit and socialize with the family.  After dinner we were allowed to sit around for a couple of hours but then we started bingo night. 

Throughout the year mom would buy small and large trinkets for prizes on bingo night and would also have adult and kids bingo gifts.  We would spend probably about 3 or 4 hours playing bingo and laughing and having a good time.  To mom this was one of the few times a year when the family didn't and wouldn't argue over anything.  They knew better.  On the holidays, you could very well be sitting right next to the one person you may have hated all year long, but then and there you were laughing with them.  Mom always had that way of solving problems with a few full plates and a game of bingo. 

Once bingo night was done, mom would open up the tables to eat again, and the feast would start all over again.  The only difference being is that mom knew she had kept the men away from football for to long and would let the adult men into the living room while eating again.  She knew when her control of the day was waining.  But she would smile, get drinks and enjoy the fact that everyone was satisfied and enjoying themselves at her expence. 

Throughout her day she would probably only sit down for 10 or 20 miniutes at a time, so when she finally sat down on the couch, she would usually fall asleep almost instantly while watching tv.  To ensure that she could take a nice nap before she started cleanup, the kids and men would go outside for football in the field next to the house and play untill dark.  Yes thats right from the start to stop of the eating would be 5 or 6 hours. 

While we were out playing football, the smokers would lean under the apple tree that was now free of apples that mom had saved for fresh apple pie and smoke cigarettes, talk and laugh about the day and the pitifull attemt at tackle football in the field. 

When everyone was done getting bruised up in the field we would all go back in and shod our shoes to get hot chocolate or coffee and mom would have everything cleaned up except for the deseart table.  Dishes done and things put away mom would again ensure that the cold guys had hot drinks and desearts and that eveyone was told goodbye as they were leaving.  It was the end of a long family organized day.  Before anyone left, mom set up the gift exchange for Christmas and set the price at 20 dollars or less.  She also recanted the rules of the gift exhange every yeas as follows, you couldn't spend more than 20 dollars and had to try to get the best of most presents that you could.  They had to be age appropriate and nothing "dirty".

After everyone left mom would pull out the decorations and tree and we would decorate the christmas tree and house and talk about the day and previos years.  Talk of who was doing well and who seemed to be struggling.  We would pray over the family and enjoy coffee or hot chocolate depending on our age and eat whatever cookies may have been left. 

The one thing we did every year that seemed weird was that the whole family sat around watching christmas shows that we had recorded the previouse year and relax to finish out the night, the rule was that the last one awake would wake everyone and shut off the tv so we could all go to bed.

The next morning it was up at 4 am to go shopping on Black Friday.  This was the one thing that I disliked the most but usually got warmed up to it quick with a hot cup of White Castles coffee.  This was the only time of year I can recall mom letting me drink coffee.  I guess it was her way of saying thank you for me not complaining about getting up that early to shop when she knew I hated to shop. 

Family traditions are things that get passed down to your children to hold on to for the rest of their lives.  Always take the time to ensure that you are passing things down to your children and if you have no children, contact the local shelter and see if you can sponsor a child or family for the holidays. 

Spread the love and be loved throughout you life so that when you see God, he will say thank you for all you have done.

Love Kenny and family and happy holidays

Please feel free to steal any of my family traditions to use as your own and also please tell me some of yours in a comment or two.