I'm missing Thanksgiving: G-BOMBS

After four days of wonderful meals (Thursday + leftovers through Sunday) it's now beans and rice with mushrooms and onions on lots of greens. We had turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, roasted squash, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, relishes,  pumpkin pie, apple pie, and beverages at our daughter and son in law's home, we got to bring a lot of it home, and with careful planning, we had some parts of it the rest of the week. But now the fun is over.

G-BOMBS  Greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, seeds 

Dinner looked like this, but it's a stock photo

Doing what guys do--watch football on Thanksgiving

So now it's time to cut back and get ready for the various Christmas time activities.  The OSUL retired librarians are meeting for lunch on Friday at the OSU Golf Club and I'm the hostess, then that evening we're going out with Ned and Rosalie.  On Sunday our church small group is getting together for lunch at the Zimmers after church.  On Wednesday, Conestoga (Friends of Ohio History Connection) are meeting for our Christmas dinner at a nice restaurant and we're bringing our friend Mary Frances as our guest. On Thursday the PDHC is having its annual Christmas dinner at the Amelita Mirolo Barn in Upper Arlington.  Our condo association will be having a roaming drop in at three decorated homes (I need to check the date for that one). Then things seem to quiet down.  This year Phil will be playing in the band at his church, so for the first time that I can remember, we won't have Christmas Eve dinner together, so the rest of us may go out to eat and then to church services at 9 p.m. at Lytham Rd. campus of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church. On Sunday, December 25, we're serving communion at church, then having dinner here, but I haven't planned the menu yet. No plans in place for New Year's Eve.  Probably in bed early and stay off the streets.

Past Thanksgiving holidays

I'm drawing a blank about what my parents may have said about their Thanksgiving holidays.  And for myself as a kid, I don't remember much until I came home from my freshman year in college and found myself teary to see aunts and uncles and cousins all gathered for a big meal. I'm not sure we even had any traditions or styles of celebrating that needed to be blended.

I used to think, based on family Bible records, that my immigrant ancestors came around 1730. After starting genealogy a few years ago I found a few from England in the 1600s. I think they did miss the first Thanksgiving between colonists and native Americans.  My German ancestors had to sign pledges of loyalty to the King of England; the British and Irish who were already subjects didn't. There was a lot of discrimination against both Irish and Germans in the mid-19th century.--by the same groups that had come a generation or two before them. My grandmother whose family had come from the area of Europe that later became Germany had German immigrant women as household help.  It's my recollection from stories my mother told that Grandma thought they weren't very assimilated to our customs.  But when you're trying to fill up a country and find soldiers, the requirements were rather lax. The various church groups helped them resettle, just as today, if they didn't have family; no programs from the government. Some were indentured to pay for their passage, it was sort of like the coyote system of today bring people out of S.A. and Central America. Had to work many years to pay back the cost.

Most of the links from this page to other articles are broken, but this is a good explanation of other countries' observance of Thanksgiving. 

Attending church is a nice tradition--after all, God is the One to whom we give gratitude.