It seems that most of our Thanksgiving Day is spent on the road going in between eating places and complaining that we just can't eat one more thing! All of our family visits are in the same county so the drives are short and complete digestion has not taken place before we are piling more food into our systems.
This year our farm is going to require a little more hands on activity from us before and after all the eating so I am hoping that helps with that miserably full feeling we always have. Because most of our day will be spent away from the farm all the feeding/watering for the animals will have to be done early. The greenhouses will have to be watered/harvested early because lets face it after a full tummy there is no way any work will get done. So all this work will just work up a healthy apetite that will is going to be needed.
One little thing I have been doing and hope has gone unnoticed for the past couple of years is to fill up at my family get together which is always the first stop of the day. I was actually trying to eat enough at each stop so that no one would comment on the little amount of food on my plate. Out of all the stops that we have to make my grandmothers house is my favorite stop along the way. We are a strange family to most because our lunch starts at 11 am. I think this happened because everyone had about 2 to 4 stops to make during the day and starting at grandma's house early just became the norm. We don't wait on everyone to get there. When it gets down to just one of the sub families missing we start eating. We have a large family and any table short of the one for the last supper just wouldn't hold everyone. Now here's the weird part-each sub family breaks into different rooms of the house and eats together. I have always thought that very weird and new comers see it as strange too. An example would be that each aunt and her children, grandchildren, etc eat in one spot together. Get the idea? Somehow my sub family is the one that always eats in the kitchen with gramdma-maybe it's because my dad is the oldest-I don't know. I just know the division that takes place. And that each sub family has their own specific place in the house. So when someone new comes in and asks where's so and so is everyone knows where to direct them to without even having to guess or look around. Now after we all eat someone will branch out and visit another little sub group and so on. It's all very strange and comforting in some weird way.We are a very separate but together family haha.
The food is the best part and throughout our family history some things change and some things stay the same. I have one aunt that always brings the cole slaw-no matter what! My grandma does the turkey and dressing and it is hands down the best in the world!! No one in the blood line part of the family likes a wet bird so grandmas is always perfectly dry and the dressing just moist enough to make up for it. Grandma always does the green beans and we have all tried to copy her with no success at all. One year a cousins wife wanted to lighten grandmas load and tried her hand at the green beans and although they were good on their own they just weren't Thanksgiving worthy. And of course when you ask grandma her secret to the beans she acts like it's no big deal and any idiot could do it. Well we must be a family of complete morons because no one can seem to do them quite like she does. Another aunt makes the potato salad and deviled eggs. One year she put the pickled relish in the deviled egg mixture instead of the potato salad and of course it was too late to change so we were served "pickled deviled eggs". This brought a lot of joking and is still talked about tot his day. My great grandmother would always contribute a dessert that to this day has not been matched by anyone who attempts to make it. It was my all time favorite part of the meal. It was a pineapple pie and was just plain awesome. The cole slaw aunt is the one that has somehow become responsible for trying to bring this into the family meal. Each year something goes wrong but it is still delicious.
On this note, I have to write that for many years I was the one who brought the 'messed up' things to dinner. I didn't have enough sense to leave the mistakes at home. I brought them along and gave the whole family something to giggle about. But somewhere over the years my cooking skills have improved and now they look forward to what new thing I will be trying out on the family. One thing I always have to bring and can never ever forget is what the family calls is my Krunchy Kookies. I have to make a double batch for the family to munch on and a separate little mini batch just for my granmda. She is always so busy making sure all the food is right and that everyone is eating and happy that the kookies were always gone before she got any. So now she gets her own private stock to hide and she usually takes them straight to her bedroom where no one goes! In years past I would bring whatever burnt thing I attempted to make. The funny part is that no matter how horrible it looked or how charred it was there was never any leftovers. I took a lot of ribbing over the years but have never pointed out that they would eat every morsel. I'm not sure if they thought it was good or they were just trying to spare my feelings. In any case I love my family.
I have strayed (as I usually do) from my original line of surviving multiple stops on turkey day. I completely fill up on my grandmas food almost to the point of misery. The next eating is a few hours away and although I am still full I do the complimentary plate of the things I do like. Jeff's family is notorious for a wet bird and will apologize non stop if it is remotely dry. So I try to pick through and get the driest parts which are usually few and far between which is a good thing because I am always still full from grandma's. At Jeff's family get together I also have my favorites. Someone makes a hashbrown casserole that is simply scrumptious and I have tried for years to mimic but with no success. The other thing that has managed to elude me is who actually makes it. Everytime I ask someone they say well I think so and so made it and then that person will tell me the same thing. Sweet potato casserole is another staple at Jeff's families get togethers that's not at mine. I know it seems like a dessert item but I can't resist this either. Oh and the 'pickled deviled eggs' that were a mistake at my family get together is how his family actually fixes them. Needless to say I can not eat one without thinking something went wrong in the making. Now at these get togethers everyone sits together. It is usually spread between an open dining room/livingroom combo but they are together. Even when they are at a house with separate small rooms they intermingle with each other. Maybe it's because most of them are spread out across the state and the holidays are the only times they see each other.To me this is very sweet. At one of my earlier Thanksgivings with them they did something that I thought was very sweet. They took a collection of money from everyone, no specific amount was required-just what each family could afford, and this was taken to one of the family members' church and a needy families Christmas was sponsored by them. It was very sweet and I was touched by this. With the passing of Jeff's memaw and papa the holiday get togethers have been pushed to the side. Last year, we ate a late lunch with his mom, sister, nieces, and one aunt. Christmas was also no to be had together. It is too late to do anything about Thanksgiving but I am hoping that we can get everyone together for CHristmas. Our home is waaaayyyy too small for all of his family so I am thinking we may have it at the farm. I have plenty of tables and plenty of room. Plus the kids can run around outside without having to worry about being too close to the highway like here at the home farm. I think after this posting I will send out the note to everyone. Someone has got to get this family back together.
After this get togetherwe finally get to go home! Of course we have at least 5 plates of food that we have carried home with us just in case we get hungry later. There is really no such thing as getting hungry again for at least 12 hours. The last tradition of the day is to go to the movies with my dad. After all the cooking, eating, and visiting there is no way I can do this one. So it has now turned into a guy thing. All the men in the family go to whatever man movie is playing at the time while the women get some peace and quiet and can stretch out in the 'fat pants'.
Guess what? It's only one month until Christmas and we to go it all over again and this time with even more stops. I sometimes sympathize with Santa Claus and know how he feels at having to make so many stops in X amount of time. But more on that later......
This year our farm is going to require a little more hands on activity from us before and after all the eating so I am hoping that helps with that miserably full feeling we always have. Because most of our day will be spent away from the farm all the feeding/watering for the animals will have to be done early. The greenhouses will have to be watered/harvested early because lets face it after a full tummy there is no way any work will get done. So all this work will just work up a healthy apetite that will is going to be needed.
One little thing I have been doing and hope has gone unnoticed for the past couple of years is to fill up at my family get together which is always the first stop of the day. I was actually trying to eat enough at each stop so that no one would comment on the little amount of food on my plate. Out of all the stops that we have to make my grandmothers house is my favorite stop along the way. We are a strange family to most because our lunch starts at 11 am. I think this happened because everyone had about 2 to 4 stops to make during the day and starting at grandma's house early just became the norm. We don't wait on everyone to get there. When it gets down to just one of the sub families missing we start eating. We have a large family and any table short of the one for the last supper just wouldn't hold everyone. Now here's the weird part-each sub family breaks into different rooms of the house and eats together. I have always thought that very weird and new comers see it as strange too. An example would be that each aunt and her children, grandchildren, etc eat in one spot together. Get the idea? Somehow my sub family is the one that always eats in the kitchen with gramdma-maybe it's because my dad is the oldest-I don't know. I just know the division that takes place. And that each sub family has their own specific place in the house. So when someone new comes in and asks where's so and so is everyone knows where to direct them to without even having to guess or look around. Now after we all eat someone will branch out and visit another little sub group and so on. It's all very strange and comforting in some weird way.We are a very separate but together family haha.
The food is the best part and throughout our family history some things change and some things stay the same. I have one aunt that always brings the cole slaw-no matter what! My grandma does the turkey and dressing and it is hands down the best in the world!! No one in the blood line part of the family likes a wet bird so grandmas is always perfectly dry and the dressing just moist enough to make up for it. Grandma always does the green beans and we have all tried to copy her with no success at all. One year a cousins wife wanted to lighten grandmas load and tried her hand at the green beans and although they were good on their own they just weren't Thanksgiving worthy. And of course when you ask grandma her secret to the beans she acts like it's no big deal and any idiot could do it. Well we must be a family of complete morons because no one can seem to do them quite like she does. Another aunt makes the potato salad and deviled eggs. One year she put the pickled relish in the deviled egg mixture instead of the potato salad and of course it was too late to change so we were served "pickled deviled eggs". This brought a lot of joking and is still talked about tot his day. My great grandmother would always contribute a dessert that to this day has not been matched by anyone who attempts to make it. It was my all time favorite part of the meal. It was a pineapple pie and was just plain awesome. The cole slaw aunt is the one that has somehow become responsible for trying to bring this into the family meal. Each year something goes wrong but it is still delicious.
On this note, I have to write that for many years I was the one who brought the 'messed up' things to dinner. I didn't have enough sense to leave the mistakes at home. I brought them along and gave the whole family something to giggle about. But somewhere over the years my cooking skills have improved and now they look forward to what new thing I will be trying out on the family. One thing I always have to bring and can never ever forget is what the family calls is my Krunchy Kookies. I have to make a double batch for the family to munch on and a separate little mini batch just for my granmda. She is always so busy making sure all the food is right and that everyone is eating and happy that the kookies were always gone before she got any. So now she gets her own private stock to hide and she usually takes them straight to her bedroom where no one goes! In years past I would bring whatever burnt thing I attempted to make. The funny part is that no matter how horrible it looked or how charred it was there was never any leftovers. I took a lot of ribbing over the years but have never pointed out that they would eat every morsel. I'm not sure if they thought it was good or they were just trying to spare my feelings. In any case I love my family.
I have strayed (as I usually do) from my original line of surviving multiple stops on turkey day. I completely fill up on my grandmas food almost to the point of misery. The next eating is a few hours away and although I am still full I do the complimentary plate of the things I do like. Jeff's family is notorious for a wet bird and will apologize non stop if it is remotely dry. So I try to pick through and get the driest parts which are usually few and far between which is a good thing because I am always still full from grandma's. At Jeff's family get together I also have my favorites. Someone makes a hashbrown casserole that is simply scrumptious and I have tried for years to mimic but with no success. The other thing that has managed to elude me is who actually makes it. Everytime I ask someone they say well I think so and so made it and then that person will tell me the same thing. Sweet potato casserole is another staple at Jeff's families get togethers that's not at mine. I know it seems like a dessert item but I can't resist this either. Oh and the 'pickled deviled eggs' that were a mistake at my family get together is how his family actually fixes them. Needless to say I can not eat one without thinking something went wrong in the making. Now at these get togethers everyone sits together. It is usually spread between an open dining room/livingroom combo but they are together. Even when they are at a house with separate small rooms they intermingle with each other. Maybe it's because most of them are spread out across the state and the holidays are the only times they see each other.To me this is very sweet. At one of my earlier Thanksgivings with them they did something that I thought was very sweet. They took a collection of money from everyone, no specific amount was required-just what each family could afford, and this was taken to one of the family members' church and a needy families Christmas was sponsored by them. It was very sweet and I was touched by this. With the passing of Jeff's memaw and papa the holiday get togethers have been pushed to the side. Last year, we ate a late lunch with his mom, sister, nieces, and one aunt. Christmas was also no to be had together. It is too late to do anything about Thanksgiving but I am hoping that we can get everyone together for CHristmas. Our home is waaaayyyy too small for all of his family so I am thinking we may have it at the farm. I have plenty of tables and plenty of room. Plus the kids can run around outside without having to worry about being too close to the highway like here at the home farm. I think after this posting I will send out the note to everyone. Someone has got to get this family back together.
After this get togetherwe finally get to go home! Of course we have at least 5 plates of food that we have carried home with us just in case we get hungry later. There is really no such thing as getting hungry again for at least 12 hours. The last tradition of the day is to go to the movies with my dad. After all the cooking, eating, and visiting there is no way I can do this one. So it has now turned into a guy thing. All the men in the family go to whatever man movie is playing at the time while the women get some peace and quiet and can stretch out in the 'fat pants'.
Guess what? It's only one month until Christmas and we to go it all over again and this time with even more stops. I sometimes sympathize with Santa Claus and know how he feels at having to make so many stops in X amount of time. But more on that later......
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