Holiday Memories That Warm Your Heart...

[leeann]

Or bring you to tears....

Thought it might be a bit helpful to share some of our wonderful memories of Holidays' past. We can't be with our loved ones now.. but maybe we can all feel a bit closer to them by recalling some warm memories of Thanksgiving and other holidays past.

So please feel free to share yours here.

I'll start.

Thanksgiving... the windows in the kitchen all fogged up. Making the house seem it's own safe cocoon. The wonderful turkey scent wafting through the entire house. Only family mattered that day. All the stress from school and people at school... just vanished as the windows fogged and the smells got into every nook and cranny.

Mom bustling around the kitchen... humming.. always humming. Dad fighting with the turnips and getting his fingers all cut up in the process and then laughing about it and just wanting those turnips cooked already and in his stomach!

My Gram peeling potatoes at the kitchen table telling stories of old. Watching the parade and having ALL activity in the house come to a screeching halt as one of us would announce from the living room "Here comes Santa!" All would run from wherever they were and whatever they were doing to watch Santa wave to us through the TV. Yup even the grownups and yup even when we had long passed believing...

Sis and I getting the very important job of setting the table... setting out the pickles and olives in the fancy glass dishes....

All of us, assembly line style, running hot food from the kitchen to the diningroom table.

And finally.. all would sit down and grace was said... and we knew.. grace was the most important part of the day.

And then.. the feast began. It was all yums and lip smacking. The grownups complaining that they were sure to bust.

Gals cleared the table and all of us in Mom's tiny kitchen did all of the dishes while chatting or singing away. (Singing Christmas carols was only legal after dinner was finished.)

Mom washed.. Gram and one of us dried and the other of us put away.

Afterwards we all would go for a stroll around the lake where we lived until Gram got too old, then she would just nap a bit til we got back. Cold air assaulting our noses, the smell of fireplaces trying to warm them back up.

It was all so pleasant I hated the day to end. But.. that meant that surely.. Christmas was coming.....

What about you?? Any memories you would like to share? Doesn't matter if you cry your way through it... those tears are the physical representation of the love you have shared. And that indeed is something to be grateful for.

So tell us.....

leeann

[AnnieO]

Leeann,

I think we grew up in the same house! Including calling our grandmother, Gram!

What a wonderful post, I smiled as I read it.

Since my parents are gone and they always had Thanksgiving, its now up to me. I am trying to keep all the traditions and recipes the same.Today I was buying groceries and didn't know what kind of bread crumbs my mom used, I started to cry. There was an elderly lady there and she saw me, I started to smile and laugh and told her my problem, she told me which ones she thought were the best. I think my mom sent her to help me!

The one memory I would like to share...every year my mom would make us all write down what we were thankful for. She would keep all the lists and then the following year she would give us a list of what everyone had written down. The lists have really changed over the years. When we were little we were thankful for "home-made strawberry jam, pumpkin pie, new skateboard,our pets, etc" Now its so different, its all about time with our families. We didn't do the thankful lists last year because we had my parents memorial service during Thanksgiving, but this year I will start it back up.

Thank you for sharing your memories with us.

[leeann]

So how did it go Annie?

The memory I had above here was pretty far from what happened today.. but that's life... going on.

Today I became aware that I was also trying to have everything the way it 'used to be' and I realized today that was a mistake for me.

I'm making food for my folks and my FIL.... some dishes and things they loved. Problem is my kids aren't crazy about them and hub could live without them as well. I just noticed this. LOL Oh well.

Menu will be different next year.

Time for more change.....and new memories I guess.

Hope you all had as good a day as you could.

leeann

[DawnG]

I don't remember the ones prior to my moms illness but I do remember 2 thanksgivings ago, we went to my moms far for turkey day. I spent the whole week prior with her ( she lived with me too so we spent a lot of time together anyway) but it was different. We went through ALL of her xmas decorations and she has sooooooo many. 3 closets full. It was fun. the night before turkey day the rest of the family came up and we had some drinks, we aren't big drinkers but for some reason that night my niece, nephew, sister and aunt tied one on. We decided to turn all of her pictures in the kitchen upside down and all of her cookie jars, at least 100, facing the wall. When mom woke up she said "those F'n kids" and then laughed, it was so funny. Before that my niece and I were the only one who stayed up late, mom came up around 4 and just laughed at us for being up still. That was so much fun. Turkey day itself was fun as well. She taught my niece how to make her famous gravy, it was cute watching them together. The last Xmas we had together was very special for my mom, she asked me what she should get everyone to make it significant, I told her jewelery and she got everyone a ring, she was so excited watching us open our gifts from her. I can now see her smiling face and can picture her laughing, makes me cry but makes me happy too.

I miss you mom and I miss my kitty captain that I had put to sleep a week before she died (liver cancer for the kitty)