Now through Monday, November 26, submit your favorite Thanksgiving traditions, memories, or a story. We will hold a random drawing of the participants on Tuesday, 11/27, and the winner will receive a prize! Email Barb@recollections.biz with your story or you can write it directly in the comments section on the blog.
The winner of the random drawing is Diane S. ! Thanks to all that participated!
thanksgiving it is all about traditions and food
I’m so excide about your stories
from:Dj
bye love u
Received from Eleya:
Ever since my cousins and I have gotten into high school, we have all auditioned on our instrument or vocally for the Iowa All-State choir or band. It is a big deal to get into All-State because only the top 10% of all musicians and vocalists who audition get in, plus, the performance is aired on public television on Thanksgiving day. After we have filled ourselves with delicious food, played games, looked through black Friday ads, and grown closer as a family, it has become a tradition to watch All-State on TV. My favorite part of the whole event is watching my family members try to find one of a kids in the midst of all the other kids in the choir and band. This year my grandpa was very excited about finding his granddaughter on TV. So excited in fact that he got out of his comfortable chair, went over to the TV, pointed her out, and with much pride exclaimed “There she is!”. The most beautiful thing is seeing how proud my family is of us, and how much they love us. The can pick us out in the middle of hundreds of other teenagers, and they always think that we are the most talented, special, and best kids around.
Received from Chanel:
Weeeeeellll, (This reads best with a Scottish accent)
Many a year ago, when me husband was jist a wee laddie, his grannie was a fixin the christmas pudding ye see. She was a mixin this and thet te make it jist right, because she knows all the family is waitin te see if they would be lucky enough te git the shiny penny in their piece. So, when the oven was good an hot, ye see, she knew all ingredients for the puddin were mixed, cept fer the penny… she went to grab the container which held the penny all year long and in it went…when she realized the container held, not only the penny, but a this and that…some pins, some buttons, a ring or two or three….or six.
“Ach…” she said…so only the kitchen mouse could hear her…”Crumbs!!!Weeeel, I giss the fam will have more than they bargined for with this puddin” She pulled out all that she could see…and you know she could not see very well…and proceeded to bake the puddin.
Grannie told the family before she served the puddin, and what a surprise it was for the fam to find many a mysterious gift a waiten in their piece…Not a one of them found a pin, which was lucky enough..and they did laugh the most when baby Dougie found the lucky penny in his puddin. To this day…he is still Lucky Dougie for the fam…and even though grannie isn’t around any more we still remember her and her puddin!
Received from Madelyn:
Although we live in an urban area, we are lucky to live on a half-an-acre of land. My husband has always been an avid gardener, and has always grown a large variety of fresh fruit and vegetables for our family. One year, when my son was about 4 years old, he decided to plant a couple variety of pumpkins (for both Halloween and Thanksgiving). Most of the pumpkins were pie pumpkins, and he harvested them a couple of days before Thanksgiving and made the BEST pumpkin pies ever! However, we had one pumpkin which kept growing and growing. My husband made sure to take great care of it, as he knew that it would possibly be the biggest pumpkin he had ever grown. My son watched it with anticipation, seeing it become bigger and bigger. When we finally harvested it (a few days before Thanksgiving), it weighed about 120 pounds. We set up a Thanksgiving display in our front yard, and wanted to include the pumpkin in the display. That was a challenge. We had to carefully load it into a wheelbarrow and roll it to the front of our yard, and then carefully remove it from the wheelbarrow and place it in the display. It was quite a job. My son took great joy in telling everyone that it was HIS pumpkin. We still have the pictures of my 4-year-old son standing next to the giant pumpkin, looking quite tiny in comparison. It’s a wonderful memory that we will never forget!
Received from Deena:
Warm Holiday Greetings!
I am writing in regards to the “thanksgiving Games” entries, the Thanksgiving story/traditions/memories.
My story starts out a bit different… I was born and raised a Jehovah’s Witness, and we were never allowed to celebrate Thanksgiving. Now that I’m older, and those memories are years away, I don’t mind confessing that it didn’t stop me from enjoying the warmth and goodness that always seemed to fill the Thanksgiving holiday. When I became an adult, left home, I became a Christian. I also married my highschool sweetheart, Brendan. We were young, but very much in love but he was in the Army, on assignment to Korea. While he went through the circus of paperwork to get me over there to be with him, I stayed with my grandparents, and spent my first Thanksgiving ever, with them.
It was hard not having my husband with me on what was literally the first Thanksgiving of my life, but we were “kind of” together. Video chat had become our lifeline, and while I busilly helped my gradnparents dress the turkey and prepare the meal, Brendan stayed up late to enjoy it with me through the computer while he munched on the pumpkin cookies and peanut butter blossoms I sent him in a care package. After all that, we were excited when I went to Korea and we could finally be together for Thanksgiving!
Naturally I had a lot of ideas on what our first Thanksgiving would be like… And needless to say none of it happened!! The house we found in town was small, drafty, with sketchy plumbing, a leaky roof, holes in the wall and a broken window. None of our household goods had arrived, we had little fuirtniture and there were single soldiers to be fed, the small stove we had barely fit the turkey and was almost out of gas!
So it was a very hectic Thanksgiving. But it was ok, and we couldn’t be happier. We were together, and that was all that mattered to us. We had each other and several new found friends and we didn’t mind one bit scraping together a last minute Thanksgiving feast that had to be cooked in a microwave or sitting down on the floor, the table, the couch, wherever we could find a space to eat it! We’ve had a few Thanksgivings together since that year in Korea, and even though its much easier and hassle free now, we still remember that first Thanksgiving with smiles and fondness.
Thank you for reading.
Happy Thanksgiving!
~Deena
Received from Betty:
November Night
Nothing could be the way I remember.
The cold wind could not have scurried through the pine trees, and slipped beneath my old brown sweater. The branches twisting together could not have whispered warnings of disaster and the dead weeds beneath my tired feet did not speak of last weeks frost and more to follow after.
The moon could not have been pure silver low on the horizon and the shadows cast could not have been sharp as black glass fingers reaching toward me.
My mother could not have gone away.
My grandfather’s hand holding mine could not have been so calloused. It could not have been the source of all safety in a left behind child’s world. It could not have held the warmth of a promise to never let go. He could not have smelled like peppermint and hope.
Received from Diane:
We always gather at my aunt’s home for a huge traditional meal and then
while some of us watch sports, and some sleep; the rest of us, including
the children play games together. One of our favorite games is bingo.
Several of us shopped earlier for $1-$2 gifts, candy, and toys for the
bingo game. The big dining room table is cleaned off, the gifts are put
in the center of the table and the fun begins as we make up rules for
each game! We also play Scrabble with our own rules. We call it
“Unwords” and we make up our own words and a believable definition. If
we all agree, the words stay on the board. We even write the “unwords”
and their definitions down so we can read them the next year. We play
lots of other games, but these two have become our favorites and we
always look forward to them.
This year was a very special Thanksgiving for me. My mother passed away unexpectedly a couple of years ago, and our family of 7 children who always did everything together all scattered across the states and married. The only ones left were my dad and myself. It was too strange to make Thanksgiving for just two people, so we invited over another fellow who had also lost his wife and who was just recovered from two major surgeries including heart surgery. The menu needed to fit all our dietary needs and with God’s help we had a blessed time. We are so thankful for family, friends, fellowship and the freedom to get together and enjoy this time.
Received from Kayla:
I just enjoy going to my Grandparent’s house and fellowshipping with my family. It is always great to see cousins, aunts, uncles, and others that you haven’t seen for a while. It is also a lot of fun to sample the food.
Received from Hannah:
My first Thanksgiving with my husband’s family was 8 years ago. I was
curious to see if celebrating with a Native American family would be
different. I was happily surprised with dishes of salmon, oysters, clam
stuffing, crab salad and fry bread, among turkey and yams. My grand father
in law made a funny quip that they were doing things like the old Indians
did…having Thanksgiving with a strange, white person. 🙂
Received from Abigail:
This is my Thanksgiving memory.
When I was really little my Grandparents lived on a farm in southern Illinois and we would always go there for thanksgiving. The most special thing about thanksgiving for my was always my Grandma’s mashed potatoes! I don’t know what she did to make them special, but they were and always will be the best mashed potatoes in the whole world! The funny thing is that she hated mashed potatoes, and would never eat them, but she always made them for me. About 6 years ago they moved up to the south suburbs of Chicago near us, and she continued to make the special potatoes. Two years ago she passed away on New Years Eve, and since then I have never had the special mashed potatoes! It is a really sweet memory for me however, because I know she loved me so much!
Received from Nancy:
This occurred back many years ago when I was in probably about second grade. The class was asked by my teacher in anticipation of the nearing of Thanksgiving, what foods everyone was going to have for Thanksgiving. Well hands shot up in the air and exited voices would gladly say what they were having. Well there was this one boy in class who when he had his hand up and the teacher called on him, his response was that he was going to have Spaghetti. Well the teacher laughed and mockingly said, “You don’t have spaghetti on Thanksgiving!” His answer was dismissed and I’m sure forgotten by many there. But I have never forgotten that moment for that boy was so extremely poor and I’m sure having spaghetti was a special treat for him. I don’t remember that boy’s name as this occurred over forty years ago now, but in honor of this memory and all that are in his situation today, I will have on my table this year amidst my other dishes, there will be a bowl of Spaghetti. So I’m thankful unto God for His provisional grace and His blessings and hope that wherever that boy is today He knows God’s grace and every day is Thanksgiving.
Received from Jeannie:
I think my most favorite memory from Thanksgiving, was when I was a little. We had Thanksgiving Dinner at our house instead of my Grandparents. My Uncle, their youngest son, was stationed in Germany and it was his first holiday away from home. When my Grandpa came over he had a tape recorder and we recorded the whole day for my Uncle.
It was really a fond memory and we would talk to the tape recorder like our Uncle was right there. I wonder if he still has the recording. Oh well that is my most favorite Thanksgiving memory.
Received from Penny:
I come from a large family of four sisters and 2 brothers. Every year at Thanksgiving, my Mother’s mission was to buy the largest turkey that she could find. Usually is was between 25 and 28 pounds. (You just can’t find them that big anymore.) She would clean it up and take everything out of it, which is the part that I didn’t like, and put it in the oven overnight. I remember when it was time to take it out that it was always golden brown and smelled delicious.
When it came time for me to cook my first Thanksgiving Dinner I did everything that my dear Mother had taught me. I cleaned it and yes, even took the stuff out of it. I put it in the oven overnight, just like Mother. I was having my new husbands family for Dinner so everything had to be perfect.
Well, around 4:00 the next morning I awoke to the smell of turkey and got up to check on it. The turkey was already dark golden brown and looked to be a little crispy. I then realized one tiny detail, It doesn’t take long for a 15 pound turkey to cook! So when my guests arrived, I explained everything to them. Thank goodness for my husbands Grandmother. She said, “Not to worry dear, I’ll just make some gravey and everything will be just fine.” And it was.
Received from Vickie:
This is my best Thanksgiving Memory.
In the year of 2005 was the most memorable Thanksgiving with my late husband. He was diagnosed with colon cancer the year before and we knew the out come would not be good.
So thru the treatments and horrible sickness we always tried to make the best of everything. All the years we were married every holiday was spent with family. This last year he was so sick we could not join the family, so we decided to have one last Thanksgiving together just us. ( We knew he would not make the year out) I spent the day cooking and he spent the time sitting in the kitchen watching me cook. I did not spare anything. I was going to make this year the best for us. We spent the day talking and going back thru our life and looking at the good things we had in our life. From meeting, to having our child,, having a very happy marriage. We shared our deepest thought and fears. We talked about everything and nothing. We were laughing and crying. It was the best day of my life I was so happy.. The feeling of that day still makes me smile. I learned that day I was so thankful for everyone and everything in life. He is gone now and each Thanksgiving I can look back and know I was blessed with such a great man. I learned that day tell the ones you love and what they mean too you and be Thankful for life is short.
Vickie