Thanksgiving

My Thanksgiving celebration turned out a bit smaller than planned, due partly to weather and the long miles between Portland and Klamath Falls.  My eldest daughter and her sweetie didn’t make it this far south, and I missed her. However, my youngest daughter living in Klamath Falls came with my granddaughter Hillary and their new exchange student from Thailand, Kwankae.  The man behind the camera is Melody’s long-suffering husband, Kevin.  My sweet little grandson had to do the court ordered thing and spend the holiday with his father in Portland.  Families can certainly get complicated, can’t they!

With horrendous icy road conditions, my sister was afraid to drive out to Rocky Point in her 2 wheel drive vehicle, so Mo made the trip to town twice to pick up Sally and my niece Savannah and return them late in the evening.  That amounted to about 4 hours of icy driving, but Mo felt it was worth it to get Sally and Savannah to our home for the celebration.  Thankful.  I am just really thankful for so very much.

Just a little aside here: My sister and I share the same mother, she died when we were small children, and we were separated.  I didn’t find her until 36 years later.  Sally lived in many parts of the country before coming to live with me in Klamath Falls in 2003.  After a year, she moved out on her own, making her own life and focusing on raising her fantastic, talented daughter Savannah.  Of course, sisterhood isn’t without flaws, especially since we didn’t grow up together and came from such different backgrounds.  For 36 years I didn’t have a sister, and now I do. 

I had fun spending most of Wednesday cooking all that I could do early so Thursday morning was a breeze.  Woke up too dang early, though, probably just excited, but at least I was awake in time to get the 20 pound turkey stuffed and in the oven before 8.  Got a comment from a friend about our Thanksgiving table…not yet piled with food.  Usually I forget to get the photo before dinner and then it’s too late after dinner and all the food is all messy looking.  This time I forgot to take a photo of the food!  LOL  Here’s one of everything on the counter where we filled our plate.  Turkey, old fashioned bread  dressing with onion, celery, and tons of sage, mashers, gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, southern sherry glazed yams with pecans, fruit salad, that silly green lime jello thingy (for old time’s sake), and 4 kinds of pie for dessert. The daughter that couldn’t make it had our traditional cream cheese veggies with her, so we didn’t have them this year.  Somehow the plates were completely full anyway, even if two chairs were not.

Mid-afternoon, with the sun shining and making the frigid air seem a bit less daunting, we all bundled up to go outside and try out the new Costco sled I picked up the other day.  Of course, Mo’s antique sled with runners, a real one, did much better in the snow and the three teenagers had a good time laughing and falling and playing in the snow.  They were great sports, no complaints at all about the weather, the cold, or Grandma’s silly plastic sled.

Just for fun, here is a photo of the last time I had Thanksgiving for my family.  A few more managed to get to Klamath back then in 2003, and it wasn’t easy then either. Thanksgiving has always been special to me, it’s the holiday that is specifically for family, without any other agenda, and I love that about it.  Well, of course, there is the food part, but without family that would be irrelevant. 

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Melody is in the front row with my grandson on her lap, Hillary and Savannah have changed a bit in seven years, I think.  I am on the right, next to my first-born daughter, my sister next to her, my two grandsons in the rear (both now Iraq veterans), my middle daughter next to her husband holding my first great grandchild and a step granddaughter.  These family pictures track the history for us, the changes in family dynamics, where everyone has been, where we are going perhaps.  Yes, it’s a bit nostalgic, and yes, so very much fun, and yes yes yes, I am grateful for my family.

Author: kyotesue

Soil scientist/mapper working for 35 years in the wild lands of the West. I am now retired, enjoying my freedom to travel, to hike without a shovel and a pack, to knit and quilt and play, to play with photography and write stories about all of it. View all posts by kyotesue