For some Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday.  I think if the family is difficult for them a one day meal and visit is all they can take.  I however love Thanksgiving. As I reflect on all the blessings in my life the gratitude pours over.  I remember a time when I first moved back to Tennessee from Wisconsin.  Wisconsin brought some great memories but it was not easy for me.  Remember the movie, “7 Years in Tibet?”  I could write one “8 Years in Wisconsin.”  Anyway, I left and brought the kids back from Tennessee when the house wasn’t even packed.  I was ready to go.  Every day, I drove around Franklin, Tennessee, and just sent praises to God that I was back in the South.  Most Southerners I know have a deep love for the weather, culture, and landscape.  Whenever I am away from a place I love my heart grows fonder.

I have been closer to my Dad’s family over the years, he died when I was nineteen but most of my aunts, uncles, and cousins have gone to my Aunt Cissy’s and Uncle Jimmy’s for Thanksgiving most of my life.  Cissy cooks the Turkey, Uncle Phil brings fried chicken, Uncle Ed brought the ham and the rest of us brought a dish or two.  One of my favorites is cousin Chris’s Tennessee Corn Pone.  It is basically pinto beans with cornbread cooked on top.  With a view of the East Tennessee foothills, a game of bocci or croquet outside was very memorable for me.  

Aunt Cissy gave us each her blackberry jam.  Count on cousin Jeff to be in something interesting.  I think the SpongeBob pajamas were one of my favorites.  Then up to 15 to 25 cousins would go to sleep downstairs by the fire with a football game on.

The first time I brought George, he got a plate and sat at the dining room table.  I said, “What do you think you are doing? This is for the Aunts and Uncles you cannot sit there.”  He promptly moved to one of the card tables set up for the cousins in the dining room.”  

As I have aged people go their own way.  They do have in-laws, people move, divorce, and life takes them in different directions.  Cissy and Jimmy are with the Lord now and Uncle Phil and Aunt Nancy have taken up the mantle of hosting Thanksgiving, the number of people who come has dwindled, not sure how much longer this tradition will last but I am hanging on to those who continue to come.  Change is inevitable but I am thankful for all those years having 30 or so of my family together and the memories I will cherish.