Family, food and games tie Thanksgivings together

Hello everyone. Jennifer here. It’s been a few weeks since our last post, and you might be wondering what happened. Don’t worry. Our project is still going, but I’m totally blaming this short hiatus on our parents. :)

A few weeks ago, they came out to Washington to visit me. The extra two pairs of hands and feet were much appreciated as I’ve been laid up since Jan. 31 with a right broken ankle. The cooking, cleaning and ferrying of children was super helpful, but being here instead of back in Kansas, they couldn’t draw our next word. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

But now they are back in Kansas, and they’ve drawn a word. Of course, it being April, they drew … Thanksgiving. So appropriate for this time of year. Ha!

I got to thinking about what Thanksgiving means to me, and I came up with three words: family, food and games.

How I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving each year has changed quite a bit as I’ve moved from state to state. But family, food and games has always been central.

Family

My earliest memories of Thanksgiving are gathering with relatives on my dad’s side, the Kirkhams. Stories shared around the table. Bustling around to put the finishing touches on the table. I loved the chatter and scurry of family.

That meant a day playing with my cousins Gwen and Amanda. Exploring the barn. Adventuring outside. Climbing trees and playing in the dirt. The world was wide open to us, as big as our imaginations — no video games or television tethering us to the house.

I haven’t been back to a big family Thanksgiving like that for ages. Distance and fall harvest have kept us close to home, but even with my family of four the only ones at the table, I look around and smile, because family is the most important part of Thanksgiving.

Food

Doesn’t food play a starring role in everyone’s Thanksgiving memories? I just recently watched “Salt Fat Acid Heat,” a travel and foodie show on Netflix by Samin Nosrat. During the “Acid” episode, Nosrat, whose parents immigrated from Iran, talked about her first traditional American Thanksgiving (when she was in college, I think). She kept going back for cranberry sauce because she craved acid.

Traditional American Thanksgiving has little acid and a whole lotta heavy foods. Our family’s Thanksgivings are no exception to that. There’s always turkey and ham, even now with just the four of us.

When I was little, the turkey was one my dad would get up early to shoot during turkey hunting season. I remember crawling out of bed to find him in his camouflage and face paint, turkey in tow. Weren’t Brenda and I adorable in the top picture? It’s funny, I always thought of myself as the one in the nightgown with Brenda dressed tomboy style. Funny how our memories sometimes differ from what really happened.

Church potatoes (sometimes call funeral potatoes) always graced the table, along with a relish tray and my grandmother’s famous rolls.  

And the pies, oh the pies! One of my earliest memories of baking is helping (air quotes needed here) as Mom rolled out pie dough for cherry, blueberry and apple pies. I still make at least two pies for my family’s Thanksgiving. Yes, two pies for four people.

Mom did slightly stomp on my pie dreams recently when she told me she’s realized that store-bought pie crusts are just as good and easier than from-scratch pie crust. Nope Mom, sorry. I didn’t hear that. In my mind you will always make your pie dough from scratch.

Side note here: When they visited a few weeks ago, Mom made two pies, cherry and blueberry, with from-scratch crusts, and they.were.amazing!

Games

And finally, the games. Thanksgiving here, there and everywhere, always had and always will have games. Ten-point pitch is my family’s preferred game of choice. I learned to play pitch during a blizzard. Grandpa walked the eighth-mile between our house and his for lunch and stayed around after to teach Brenda and I how to play. After he went home, we pulled out our stuffed animals and kept on practicing.

I love pitch. I played it on bus rides in high school. At parties in college. And now I’ve taught my kids to play it. If we played anything else at family Thanksgivings, I don’t remember.

With my family, we’ve now added Monopoly, Sorry and Uno into the mix, but pitch will always have my heart.

There’s something about playing games with family that brings us all together. Well, and sometimes divides us when certain someone’s cheat. Not mentioning any names here, Trull. But in the end, we are creating special memories, and probably a few stories that will be shared for years to come.

So, I’m wrapping up my Thanksgiving in April post with just one more thought. After 21 years of Thanksgivings spent in Kansas, my Thanksgiving table has moved around a lot. But no matter where I’ve been, I know I’ll always have this. Family, food and games. Every year, that is what makes Thanksgiving special to me.

I hope you’ve got your own special Thanksgiving memories. I’d love to hear them so feel free to share below in the comments or on Facebook.