Thanksgiving Traditions {from our family}
This Thanksgiving has me in a reminiscent frame of mind reveling in some of our family’s Thanksgiving traditions. Some of it has to do with the social distancing of the pandemic and the quietness that comes with it. Both things I am perfectly okay with.
As I was working on our Thanksgiving Day preparations (we did our Thanksgiving on the Sunday before, and this year, it was just my boys and their respective others, who also frequent our house) I was reminded of such good memories
For the past several years, my younger brother (I can’t call him “little brother” anymore since he towers over me) has hosted my side of the family the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. I’m usually responsible for making my mom’s passed-down stuffing recipe – starting with loaves of bread that sit out for a few days to get that perfect crisp staleness — and I’m responsible for the pies.
Then, on Thanksgiving Thursday, we have hosted my husband’s family. And that requires a little more work since it’s at our house.
Thanksgiving Traditions: Prep Day
We started the Tday prep day 11 years ago. One of my sister-in-laws and my mother-in-law would come over to my house. SIL would usually bring lunch and goodies to snack on because she has that ever thoughtful streak in her. Something I wish I was better at. We would put on some music, sometimes even playing Christmas music. And we’d set out on a laundry list of prep tasks —- yes, I had and still do have a checklist.
As we work, we laugh, we bond, we get shit done. A couple of times, my mom came over and joined in on the comraderie. It’s been one of the times where family traditions for the holiday and vintage stories show up – my mom might talk about how her mom used to the make the gravy – that sort of thing. Good stuff! This day-before is a few hours of good fun and always lots of talking and laughing.
After working our way through the to-do list of peeling potatoes, baking pies, and making appetizers, the last item on our to-do list is to cook the turkey, which usually finishes in the evening hours. After my SIL ad MIL head home, my husband has the role of cutting up the cooked turkey and we pan it between light meat and dark meat. We throw the autumn tablecloths on the tables and we head to bed.
This year is about remembering the memories…
There are things about that day, like doing it solo this year, that have been wandering through my brain. I’m usually good, and sometimes even prefer, to face a mission on my own. I think it’s the introvert in me. But I always looked forward to the Tday prep days. I really like my SIL and MIL (and obviously my mom) and having their humor and wit and comraderie throughout the day (and their industriousness) created such a warm family tradition.
Part of our Thanksgiving traditions is the passing down of family recipes, of learning how to pinch a pie crust (I use store bought but ya still gotta pinch’em), the secrets to making gravy, all being passed on from Mom and MIL. There was incorporating other people’s traditions — SIL always grew up with a homemade apple pie. And let me just say, you can NOT buy this one. Her pie is INCHES high with apple and cinnamon yumminess.
“Enough to taste..”
As I was prepping the dressing this year, I cherished the fact that this was a family recipe. My mom, and her mom, used to make this dressing every Thanksgiving.
Several years ago, Mom put together a booklet of family recipes and this was one of the recipes in it. Over the past 11 years, I have made it in two batches and earmark one batch for each family – one for my family, and one for my husband’s family. Following Mom’s recipe to set the bread out a few days before hand so it could ‘stale’. Spending several hours mushing it up with chicken broth to get it the consistency of dressing. Mixing in fresh, dried herbs (how many years I had to go out and buy fresh because the ones I had expired and boy does that make a HUGE difference) according to mom’s recipe instructions of: “enough to taste”.
Then there’s the pies. I make pumpkin pies from the back of Libby’s pumpkin pie can. I use store bought pie crusts from the dairy case because they’re convenient, but also because I actually like the taste and I’ve not found a homemade pie crust that’s worth the time and at least equal to the taste. I’m sure many of you could prove me wrong here. And I’m open to that.
Pie pinching
My MIL taught me how to pinch the edges into the pan to create a good-looking crust. I still don’t do it as well as she does, but you get the idea of what I attempted to do. I can’t pinch a pie crust into a pan without feeling my MIL standing beside me gently guiding me through it. That experience happened years ago! She may not even know she was the one who taught me that.
Then there’s making the cheeseballs. We use Buddig meat and cream cheese with some seasonings. We’ve learned that Buddig meat is very popular during the holidays so we have to stock up on it before the holiday rush hits. My boys can absolutely crush a good cheese ball. This year, and most years, I make 2. This year, my husband mentioned that with the smaller crowd of people, I could probably just make one. I looked at him like he was crazy and said, have you seen our boys crush those. The first one will be gone within an hour of them hitting it. And I love it!
I tried my hand at a sweet potato casserole this year, trying to replicate my SIL’s delicious concoction of a recipe she crafted from 2 other recipes. I’m not a huge sweet potato fan, but I’ve developed a bit of a taste for them. And it’s just not Thanksgiving without her casserole.
The green bean casserole however I did give up this year. Not because it’s hard or time-consuming. It is neither. But because I’m just not a fan. I know, I know, it’s anti-Thanksgiving. But I am making regular old green beans, which might I add are so much better.
Game Day
On the day of I fire up the crockpots to reheat the turkey, adding some broth for extra moistness. I begin pulling out pans of dressing and potatoes and pieces to acclimate to room temperature. And slowly bring out all the fixins’ for appetizers and The Meal.
Family
In these past years, this is the time family begins rolling in and so do the ‘hellos’ and the ‘how have you beens’. Everyone catches up on everyone else’s lives like we haven’t seen each other in forever. And there’s always (always!) lots of laughs. For example, I’m mostly laughed at for my list. I keep a list of all the items to make for the day (ie. Mashed potatoes), some of the chores associated with them (ie. Peel potatoes, pull potatoes out of fridge by this time on game day). I note who brings what and whether we had enough of each item. I have these notes dating back to our first hosted Tday in 2011.
These lists are my guide….and yet another Thanksgiving tradition. Each year they set the precedent for that year’s Tday. There’s not much recreating the wheel, because I already know how many loaves of bread to buy for dressing. I know to not make that extra pie because we had way too many last year. I know that my sister-in-laws enjoys making an apple pie as part of her tradition (and we all enjoy that she enjoys it too!!) It is DELICIOUS!
The meal is timed to be served by a certain time. We usually end up a little earlier because we’re so antsy to get started. It’s become tradition that the nieces and nephews sit in the dining room, while the adults sit in our morning room. Everyone enjoying laughter, good food, and yet another year of turkey tradition.
As the day ends…
As the end of the day closes in, we say our good byes, and my husband and I begin dismantling the day’s extra chairs, table cloths, and serving dishes. We slump into our favorite chairs and bask in the fact that we just pulled off yet another glorious family gathering and the beauty of the day.
We also relish in the fact that we will go NO WHERE on Black Friday. We’ve never been Black Friday shoppers. We’ve gone out to see what it was like one or two times. But we’ve just never gotten into it. We enjoy relaxing that day and eating leftovers.
New Thanksgiving traditions
With music playing, mixing bowls on the counter, measuring cups and spoons scattered across the counters, and hubby keeping my dishes washed and snacks within reach, I orchestrated this year’s symphony of preparations…by myself. No SIL. No MIL. No Mom. With each recipe I made I relished in the history it brought with it from year’s past. There was no sadness, just a genuine joy that I had those experiences to look back on.
What if 2020 isn’t cancelled? What if 2020 is the year we’ve been waiting for? A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw – that it finally forces us to grow. A year that screams so loud, finally awakening us from our ignorant slumber. – Unknown author
So yes, some things will be a bit different this year — the crowd at our table will not be a crowd, prep day was a solo event— but some things will be the same —the dressing recipe, the pie crusts pinched in the pan, hopefully the sweet potato casserole I’ve never made before, the boys crushing the cheese ball.
It will be a new way to spend Tday. And it will have a gloriousness to it too. I’ll miss seeing some of the families but I’ll also love spending the day with my boys….something that can get lost when we have a houseful of other families that day. And at the end of the day, I will bask in the beauty of time well spent, conversations well had, and laughter.
Are you interested in seeing more about what I have been up to?
Then jump over to this article to see what I’ve been doing over the last month or so Currently I’m…
Final thoughts on our family’s Thanksgiving traditions
And so while this year’s Thanksgiving traditions will probably be remembered in years to come, there were 11 years of memories that came to life again on this one. And those won’t be easily forgotten either.
What are some of your Thanksgiving traditions or memories? Do you have a prep day? What does your Thanksgiving holiday look like this year? Leave a note in the comments below. Maybe it’ll give someone else a new tradition to start.
