Question for November OH Member Newsletter

About 6 years ago, my husband and I were living in a little apartment and it was a *****allenging to entertain our large family (two kids, two spouses and 7 grandchildren-see avatar) and we decided to have Thanksgiving at our place.  My grandma who was 89 at the time, came too as did our god-daughter and her family of four (18 people-11 kids 12 and under).
We had a great time and I cooked two 12 lb hen turkeys so the boys could all have a drumstick...after it was all cleaned up and everyone left, my grandmother hugged me and said it was the best Thanksgiving ever!  It was more amazing, since my favorite memories were the holidays spent at her house when I was growing up...it was a huge compliment from my most important role model...I still miss her; she passed away in June 2008 at almost 93 years old, it was my honor to be with her then.

True Story... my very first Thanksgiving with my girlfriend (now wife of 10 years)... we visited my mother for a family meal.  We walked out of the dining room for some reason and returned to find the cat dragging a turkey leg across the dining room floor... It was certainly a memorable moment.

 My favorite Thanksgiving memory is of the ones spent overseas when my husband was in the Marine Corps.  We had five children aged 7 and under and of course no family around since we were in Japan.  We started a tradition of each child helping with preparing one dish and eventually it evolved into each child being responsible for making one dish.  It gave us some together time in the kitchen preparing the dishes and helped me a bit with all of the cooking.  As they are all grown up now, the tradition has continued and I love it.

Waking up early Thanksgiving morning to watch the NY Macy's Day Parade in pjs
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One day I took my then 4 year old daughter to see the parade, but it was so crowded, all we could do was look up and see the balloons. They were gargantuan, you have no idea when you watch on TV.

My mother's noodle pudding that no one has been able to duplicate and we will never have again now that she is gone.

Serving Thanksgiving dinner at our local Homeless Veteran's Shelter. The best Thanksgiving EVER. When the doors opened and the vets of all wars came in, everyne saluted. Not a dry eye in the place.

No matter what you do this year, no matter what has happened in our lives, I think there is always at least one tiny thing to be thankful for. I am thankful for my health, my life, my family, my home and the food we can afford to buy. And we always do a moment of remembrance for those less fortunate.

my favorite thanksgiving memory is being about a week out of gastric bypass surgery and not missing the food on the table but enjoying the company instead. 

my favorite thing about thanksgiving is when everyone gather's at one house and makes new memories

I dont' have a whole lot of memories - good or bad...doesn't matter....but I remember always  volunteering  to chop up all of the onions, celery and things for the dressing for my aunt's dressing.

We always went to my sister in law's house for Thanksgiving, and ever since my first holiday with the family, my "assignment" has always been: Buns, pop and blueberry dessert. The blueberry dessert is a favorite which was handed down to me from my mother in law. Very simple, graham cracker crust, cream cheese filling, blueberry pie filling and Cool Whip. One year, I decided to change things up and use cherry pie filling. I swear the earth stopped turning for a minute. Hardly any of that dessert got eaten. Don't mess with tradition!

I remember the year my sister volunteered to make the pumpkin pies...She took a ready made pie crust, and filled it with a couple cans of pumpkin...She didn't know at the time that you had to mix eggs, spices and etc with the pumpkin...It was so hysterical...Needless to say no one ate the pie, not even the cat...LOL  I don't  think what was said about the posting about the cat eating the pie was very nice at all...

When I was younger and all my family together and sneaking into the dining room when mom wasn't looking to eat the black olives.......she'd come in and see the dish half empty. Since I'm having my surgery in Dec. I will definitely have my share of black olives to last a lifetime. Missing my family.......