Thanksgiving is one the most special and unique of holidays. It’s time for family to come together and spend time enjoying each other’s company and catching up on each other’s lives around the table. Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. Although my family was never one of those families that held hands and told each other why we were thankful. But we did share lots of food and laughs around the table together.
Our Thanksgivings have changed over the last 7 years or so. My father and mother have both passed away and we made our major life change and moved over 1500 miles away from our hometown. But all in all we’ve created new traditions, with our smaller family of just the 4 of us. I usually make some sort of appetizers, this year will be stuffed mushroom caps and a soup, probably French onion or pumpkin.
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| Pumpkin soup- recipe in previous post. |
Then this year I’ve decided to order my Thanksgiving dinner from a local grocery store – Hannaford. Sounds a little strange for someone who writes a food blog to order out her Thanksgiving dinner but this year we had extenuating circumstances. My mother in law had been in the hospital and my husband wasn’t sure if he would be here in NY with us or in MO with her for Thanksgiving. So I thought it would be more practical to order the dinner as well as simpler too.
I would have loved to make a big turkey with my mom’s recipe for sage dressing along with loads of fresh baked breads and tons of pies, but it just didn’t seem realistic this year. Sometimes life gets in the way of traditions. Sometimes new traditions are born out of life’s happenings. Our daughter was born the week before Thanksgiving which meant that it wasn’t practical for me to host the dinner all by myself so we did it pot luck style. My mom made the turkey and dressing which became a tradition for many years after that. I made the bread and the pies and others were responsible for all the other sides. This always worked for us. When we decided to have the dinner at my sister’s house, which was about 30 minutes away, we would pack up the roaster filled with the cooked turkey and dressing along with the fresh baked breads and pies.
It was all we could do not to pull over and have a picnic, the delicious scent was too much. I still have the roaster that my mom made the turkey and dressing in along with the recipe and have used it on many Thanksgivings.
Since my parents have passed away, we’ve moved and children have had children (my brother and sister both have grandchildren) new traditions have been born out of necessity. We’re not as close as we once were. We’ve raised our families with 1500 miles between us, but still on Thanksgiving I still feel my family near me. The four of us sit here at our table in NY and through the power of the internet we can “talk” to our families on our computers. Share what we ate, share what’s been happening, even see the newest members of the family. I know it’s not the same as being there, but it’s close. Just like ordering my Thanksgiving dinner – not the same as cooking it, but it’s close.
Next Monday I’ll have a review of the dinner with pictures.
Hope everyone has a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving.
Remember: Wear your stretchy pants!