Well it's been a little while since I put a post up on my blog so I figure I had better get one down. What better than to put in some thoughts about yesterday's holiday.
Personally I love Thanksgiving. First and foremost it's a holiday where there are no gifts. This makes it all about the event rather than about having to get somebody something, or thinking about what you're going to get from other people. That's just too materialistic for me and when you take all of that crap out of the equation it's so much easier to enjoy something.
The second part is that it's typically a holiday that is stacked with tradition. Every family does their day a bit differently and so when you return home for Thanksgiving just getting into the unique rythems of your family's holiday schedule makes you feel at home. (There aren't many better feelings in the world than this!!)
For my family it all starts with breakfast. Yes, breakfast. I know that sounds strange, but that's what makes us unique. I'm not exactly sure how the tradition started, but it's along the time of probably pre-WWII so it's pretty old. I remember as a child (and so does my Mom when she was a child) of going to my Great Aunt Clara's house for breakfast. There would be around 30+ people there for breakfast. Aunt Clara would get up around 4am to start making breakfast. And it wasn't any normal breakfast. It was Chicken Pie. For those of you that don't know what Chicke Pin is basically think Chicken Pot Pie without the vegetables. They are made in standard pie plates and are just awesome. Then she would have homemade donut holes, cheese, and gum drops. Wow it's great.
Since my Aunt Clara passed away my Mom has take over for a smaller segment of the family and continued on the tradition. To make it even more specialy my fiance has totally fallen in love with the whole thing and now she even get's up at 5:30am with my Mom to bake the pies and get everything ready. It has allowed her to have one more thing to connect her to my family and I'm not sure if my family or her loves it more. I know I love it!!
My fiance (Xan, short for Alexandra) comes from a very small family. Because of that Thanksgiving was always special for her, but definitely different from what I grew up with. This makes her love doing Thanksgiving. She's gotten to be very good at cooking a full turkey dinner and now does a dinner for us and whoever from my family doesn't have other plans. Usually is about 6-8 of us and that's another great event. Helps to put a great close on a great day. (Although last night I was wondering if I was going to explode I ate so much!!!)
So I guess that's about it. Thanksgiving is a very special day and I encourage everyone to help make their own traditions to follow. It certainly does help to make the day even more special for you and those that you love.
-Kent
