Thanksgiving - My House

My family is a little different,some would say,when I grew up. Now, that's not exactly true - I think that there is nothing different, unusual, strange, or just plain weird about them. However, from what I see on television and hear on radio, it looks like mine strays a bit from the norm. Take Thanksgiving, for instance. An easy thing to do since it's just a couple of days away. My family would not dress for Thanksgiving. OK, we do dress but we don't -DRESS! The formal way of saying ..dress up.. The general dress of the day for Thursday will be sweats and jeans, maybe the cook still in their Pj's cooking. There will be no candles or lovely centerpiece. The centerpiece will be whatever food item gets stuck in the middle of the table while everything else is being passed around. If there is room, it will be my gramma's old roaster/dutch oven filled with dressing, if there's no room, it goes on the kitchen counter. Flowers and candles, not something to eat or fight over, will be put to some place out of the way, of the food and hungry mouths. The -Good china- and family silver, whats that? if there is actually any. Is left locked wherever it is. We would use paper plates, plastic cutlery and cups, and paper napkins. Much easier to clean afterward and less likely to cause breakage if dropped or jostled. We didn't really have a, kids table. Instead, there is the table, the kitchen counter, the sofa and maybe an old folding table. You eat wherever you can find a place to sit. And pray you just get to sit on something other then, the floor to eat. While now days most families are dealing with the Atkins to- Low Cal wars on food, my family believed in the- RULE!-if it tastes good, someone will eat it ALL!-thinking. That explained why we had turkey, giblet stuffing, ham,goose or duck, every kind of bread-roll, vegetables-dripping in anything that taste like it was made from only sugar, cakes, cookies, pies, salads, soft drinks, iced tea, and Kool-Aid. If your favorite is not on the table, or the kitchen-some where or the counter or the stove, or some where in the house. It's either because you never told anyone what your favorite is or you don't have one. The television always on, even during the prayer and would, be tuned to one of the football games. In my family, Thanksgiving football-with the men was as much a tradition as dressing and pie, or even better, burping and un-zipped pants. The women and kids knew to remain silent for fear of recriminations. The conversation was always loud, robust, and overlapping. After the second, or third meal of the day of snacking. we'd all separate and head to our different homes and, more than likely, engage in our post- Turkey-celebration ritual - Then...a long nap until the leftovers beckon, to be ate or put away, if any left! So, if my family was a strange and different kind of family, when I was growing up. I'm thankful I was born into it, rather than a -Normal one....HAPPY THANKS-GIVING TO ALL!