52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Thanksgiving

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your memories on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.

• Week 48. Thanksgiving. What was on your family’s Thanksgiving table? Do you serve the same dishes now as your family served in the past?

With bot my parents and my in-laws being local to me, I usually end up with two Thanksgiving Day dinners, which might explain why my pants are a bit tight lately...

This year, we spent Thanksgiving at my in-laws, a large family that has a very traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner.  We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, sweet potatoes, corn, cranberries, dinner rolls, coleslaw and more, all served buffet style to accommodate the 40+ people who typically show up at these family dinners.  Another tradition in this family is having finger jello - jello that has extra gelatin so it's very firm, and can be picked up and held in the fingers of small children in squares or whatever shape someone chooses to cut.  I don't remember a major family meal without it!

This has been the Thanksgiving Dinner in that family as long as I have been around, currently 29 years.


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman