Thanksgiving Traditions...

We have certain Thanksgiving Traditions. One's I'm sure are fairly unique to us. Everything will be different this year because we're spending Thanksgiving in Utah. My husband's parents are coming for the week so that will be fun.

It will just be different.

Our Thanksgivings usually go down something like this. Arrive in Morgantown at my Uncle Charlie and Aunt Denise's house. The doors and windows will be open because the house will be 100 degrees in the kitchen. We'll have raced my parents and brother and sister-in-law there. Trying to see who can get up earliest and hit the road. Tim and Terah never win. Mom always gets up at the butt-crack of dawn.

My uncle Charlie will be cooking at the stove. There will be 20 pounds of potatoes waiting for my Mom to peel. We'll all be fighting over the paper and the Black Friday sales ads. The paper will be scattered everywhere. They have a lovely dining room and a nice living room to sit in but we'll all be crowded in the kitchen anyway. Did I mention it will be 100 degrees? I'll have dressed too hot but be too proud to change. Charlie will yell at everyone 10 or 200 times to get out of his kitchen. Nicholas and Patrick will be running around the winterized pool making me nervous. Charlie will call Jamie "Boy" about 100 times and we'll all laugh at how quiet and nice Jamie used to be before he joined this family. About that time Jamie will yell at the TV and steal a piece of newspaper from my Aunt Tina. He'll only be able to steal the paper because she'll be trying to pick at the turkey.

We'll start getting hungry and looking for food to pick at. Which will get us all in trouble. Mom and Denise will peel potatoes. Nicholas will come in looking for icing cookies that Denise always makes "just for him." He'll be thirsty and I'll throw him a Pepsi. It's just what he needs. More sugar and caffeine! There are no coke products at Denise's house! Someone will convince Denise it is time to make the punch. Probably Jamie.

We'll realize it is parade time and someone will change the channel in the kitchen. And we'll get in trouble and have to put football back on and the parade on in the living room. Where no one will actually watch it. At 11:00 we'll start asking when we are going to eat even though we all know good and well, we're going to eat around 1:00. It's a conspiracy to drive my uncle slowly crazy. In the mean time we'll snack on a cheese ball made by my sister-in-law and something Charlie will have set out. He's had some successes (stuff mushrooms...yum) and then there was the unfortunate "pumpkin soup" incident a few years ago. We don't talk about that.

And finally, after much loudness and carrying on it will be time to eat. There will be paper platters and red plastic cups. We're not the fancy sort. That's the way we like it. Charlie will be walking around making sure everyone is eating. He'll comment on Jamie's plate and Jamie will comment that he's just getting started. The house will be blissfully quiet for the first time all day. We've even been known to eat out on the picnic table on those particularly warm Thanksgivings.

Thanksgivings have always gone pretty much this way. I remember when my grandparent's were alive, eating on the steps because there was no place to sit. Things change, we've lost loved ones and gained new faces over the years. Marriages, births, and deaths change the dynamics but the day always seems pretty much the same. Life marches on and loved ones are remembered in the traditions. Traditions that may seem silly to others but are held dear to us.

We're loud. We eat too much. We love each other and we accept each other JUST. THE. WAY. WE. ARE. That's what family is all about.