create my own unique family traditions

For the second year in a row, I made heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast on Valentine’s Day. Many of them ended up looking like misshapen little blobs, but these in particular came out at least resembling hearts. This may be a tradition that sticks. :D

we’ll be spending Thanksgiving this year with dh’s dad and stepmother in Ft. Worth. So we won’t be doing anything unique as far as this holiday tradition is concerned. If it’s a typical text-book Thanksgiving, and there’s no reason for me to expect that it won’t be, I already know what’s going to happen.

Everyone will get to the house a little before noon because that’s when we’re supposed to eat. The wise among us will already have partaken of lunch beforehand (or a really big breakfast) because experience has taught us that the meal will never be ready by noon. First-timers will have to subsist on the many appetizers provided—shrimp scampi, bacon wrapped venison, deviled eggs, various nuts (almonds, pecans, cashews), those little sausages in barbecue sauce, etc. until the main courses are actually ready. This usually occurs around 4 or 5pm. The munchkins will be scampering around underfoot, going inside and outside (and inevitably leaving the doors open) as fancy suits them. Mike the dog will come wandering in, sniffing around for food particles that have made their way onto the floor and he will delightedly vacuum them up. A football game will be playing on the TV in the living room. People will be clustered here and there in small groups, catching up with one another over glasses of wine (or in my case, Dr Pepper). At long last, the meats will be taken off of the grill (or out of the oven) and the line for food will start to form. There’ll be turkey, duck, pork loin, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, asparagus spears, candied yams, salad, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, rolls, pumpkin and pecan pies… We’ll all eat until we can eat no more and then the guys will fall asleep on the couch watching football. The women will gather in the formal dining room for a game of…..Bingo. Bingo is an annual event, one that was in place long before I came into the family. Everyone who plans to play brings prizes and we take turns divvying them out to the various winners. Towards the end of the evening, everyone will be immensely tired of Bingo and it will just turn into a gift-giving party. People will start to drift away after that, when the moon is up outside and the streets are dark. The din in the house will become more subdued. There’ll be mounds and mounds of dishes to be washed, pots to be scrubbed, and leftovers to be boxed up. One by one the different families will take their leave, arms loaded with Bingo prizes. Eventually everyone but the house guests will be gone and we’ll begin our drive home.

A small part of me wishes that we could do our own thing for Thanksgiving this year, but there’ll be time for that soon enough. Next year when we’re thousands of miles away from our loved ones we can be more creative. This Thanksgiving will the last one we get to spend in Texas for quite some time—we would be wise to make the most of it.

I’ve always thought it would be cool to do something outside of the norm for a holiday. At Thanksgiving, a million gazillion American families sit down and eat turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and pumpkin or pecan pie. Since no one in my family is particularly fond of turkey, I think we’ll do something different this coming year—like lasagna, or enchiladas, or stir-fry. Then we’d be much more likely to eat the leftovers! : )