Get Ready for Turkey Day

I'm sure you are a thankful person. I think most of us are. We have so many blessings and sometimes we do need to be reminded of those things in the midst of troubling times, but for the most part we are thankful.

Our Thanksgiving holiday has all kinds of traditions surrounding it with all kinds of stories from both history and our own families. My memories of Thanksgiving usually involve my Cicero, Indiana cousins, the Goolsbys, but sometimes we would go to Tennesssee for Thanksgiving. Occasionally, we had Thanksgiving with just my dad, my mom, and my brother and me--like in this photo.

I liked Thanksgiving because 1. we ate like fiends 2.the Macy's parade 3. there were no "scenes" played out like on other holidays because my dad stayed home 4. most of the time the weather was still nice enough to go outside 5. I truly was grateful to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I loved Thanksgiving the most in the early years of my marriage. First, we were really poor so it was nice to have a homecooked meal with my husband's legions of family. One year I was pregnant with our first child and we went to Aunt Gladys and Uncle George's Kokomo home. Their house was small, but we packed over 50 people in there. And Aunt Lola brought home movies of my husband's grandfather and other family members butchering hogs. Now that was something to remember! That next week my Ob-gyn asked me about Thanksgiving and when I told him about the over 50 people, he asked if we rented a hall. (No.) Then, when I told him of the hog-butchering home movies, he just raised his eyebrows. (He had my husband in med classes, so he looked at him differently then, I think.)

Then, after we'd had all of our four boys, and we moved into a large house, we hosted the family Thanksgiving. Those are my favorite memories. My mother-in-law, Imy, would come stay and help me prepare, the boys would decorate and that was the best time. I will always remember that sweet time of my life. It never was the same since and I miss the people, the warmth.

One of my favorite Thanksgiving shows was WKRP in Cincinnati when the station manager decided to give away live turkeys--and dropped them like sacks of sand from a helicopter at a mall. Les Nessman reported and it was pretty awful. That was a funny show.

See if you know about Thanksgiving. This might be fun to do at your Thanksgiving gathering for trivia (or the winner could get the pulley wishbone of your Turkey. And this is why I'm posting this early--so you could use this quiz for your own Thanksgiving.)

What's one of your best memories of Thanksgiving? What are you most thankful for this year?