THANKSGIVING MEMORIES....

I am thinking of past Thanksgivings (and there have been many of them!). Most of my early Thanksgivings were spent with our family friends the Hahns. As their family grew, so did the chairs at the tables - the adult table and the "kids" table. There isn't a doubt in my mind that the kids table ruled - judging from all the laughter that came from it!

In my hometown the high school football season culminates on Thanksgiving Day with the Easton-Phillipsburg game. Let me tell you, this game is a hot rivalry and full of teen drama! I have a vision of me in bermuda shorts and knee socks and my red and white pompoms walking back home after the game. The smell of burning leaves filled the air, the smell of turkey filled the house.

When I went away to college, I was so homesick and saw an ad on a bulletin board asking for riders to Philadelphia. I signed on. The driver was a big-deal football player and I was a stuttering naive freshmen. It was just the two of us. As soon as we drove out of Wisconsin the snow started falling. By Indiana it was a full-on blizzard. He suggested staying at a motel that night and I was so freaked about being in a motel room with a guy I didnt know. He slept on the floor. Somehow we made it to Philadelphia where my parents picked me up. I think I flew back. Whatta dweeb.

The Thanksgivings as a young bride consisted of riding to Pennsylvania and Upstate New York, first as a couple and then with a baby or two. In California it was much the same, heading to Orange County with kids, coming back late at night, tired and full of food.

I don't think I made my own turkey for Thanksgiving until I lived in Georgia! Thanksgiving during those years meant picking up kids at Atlanta airport or welcoming Erin from college for a too-short visit before Christmas.

For the last few years we have been on our own for Thanksgiving. It seems weird. The very things I didn't like about the holiday when I was younger (all the people and noise) are the very things I miss a lot now! I would love to fill up the house and the table with family and grandkids! Maybe next year......meantime we wish all a Happy Turkey Day, remembering everything for which we are all thankful!