obligatory Thanksgiving post

Before I start cooking today, I thought I'd say something here. I'm getting off easy-I only have a to bring a few dishes to the family meal. I am in charge of some veggie side dishes and am making green bean casserole (one of my favorites) and eggplant parm casserole. Plus some cookies and beer will be included.

There was never a history to Thanksgiving in my house growing up. It was chiefly a time of our little family (we didn't go to the big family gathering because of family disagreements) eating more than we usually did and Mom making her famous cheeseball. I learned the "first Thanksgiving" story in my small town public elementary school, and no one ever disputed it. Later in high school I read a few essays on the horrors that the settlers inflicted on the locals, but growing up I didn't know anything other than Pilgrims and Indians and sharing. That didn't matter much, because the focus was eating together and knowing the garden was done for the year and I didn't have to weed or mow anymore. It was usually not quite cold enough yet to worry about how gathering wood for our woodburner would soon replace summer chores.

Even now, I think of several things mainly when I think "Thanksgiving Day". I think of good food and gathering together with family. By now, my husband's side of the family who we gather with has ten grandchildren running around together, it's sometimes chaotic but having a bunch of kids underfoot is nice. When I married my husband, we lived with my parent's in law for a while and I helped my mother-in-law make all the family dishes for the holidays. The family meals have become a part of life in the past six years, and I look forward to them each year. Some of the best times with my mother growing up was cooking with her, so I also enjoyed cooking with my mother-in-law. She's a good woman and I love her dearly. I'm glad she's shared the family recipes with me and welcomed me into her family. I went by her house yesterday and saw she was putting out the family silverware for today's meal. It's a lovely, heavy old set that feels real in your hand and beats plasticware anyday. Thank God for having family in town, we're very lucky. I am very lucky in my in-laws and can't remember that enough.

This year, I am looking forward to spending the afternoon just being together with family. Elijah, my three year old tank of a boy, is excited about the big bird we'll be eating and wants to know who shot it. He'll be disappointed to learn it came from the store freezer. I am thankful that my husband doesn't have to work today...other years he has. I am glad he has a steady job and even likes his job. My father worked construction and factory jobs his whole life and when I was in my pre-teens he learned to hate the back-breaking work as age came on. If my husband remains a police officer, he'll retire with a pension at 50.

Happy Thanksgiving, blogdom. May God grant you many years of memories, and an immediate and extended family whose love extends beyond the present trial.

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If you had to guess, where would you say the newest challenge to the family's formerly exclusive claim to the socialization of its children has come from?

Mass media?

Peer group?

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From day care centers. Ugh.

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