Thanksgiving is an unusual time of year. People are traveling to and fro across long distances to see family and friends that they haven’t spent much time with—and in some cases haven’t even thought about—for at least 10 months. In fact, the last time some of these folks were seen was last Christmas, when they took their second-rate ‘dirty Santa’ gifts and headed home early after Aunt Martha snatched away their summer sausage and jelly gift set in the last round.

In case you aren’t acquainted, my family has played that game a few times. What basically happens is that everyone brings a $20 gift or so and each person draws a number. Those with the lowest number go first and pick a gift. Those who come later can either draw a gift or take someone else's. Most of my family couldn’t really get into the spirit of things and instead just took whatever gift they chose. However, I have been at several of those where the results varied greatly. Invariably, there’s one gift (sometimes a couple) that no one wants to get stuck with. That’s why it’s always better to steal someone else’s gift—it’s the old pig in a poke principle.

Anyway, while my immediate family doesn’t get together as often as I would like, at least we can all look forward to Thanksgiving, a time when all people who know each other well but seldom see one another get together to eat a dead bird and talk about things that happened a long time ago that no one really remembers or even cares about. It’s a great time for those who no longer have children to get better acquainted with the joys of parenthood.

We had to sit at three separate tables this time; there wasn’t a single room with enough chairs to seat everyone. The children had a table, while the adults were seated at two tables in separate rooms. While chairs were in short supply, food was not. I personally cooked a 19 pound turkey, which I injected with my own secret sauce blend and then baked in the oven for some five hours. Secret sauce? Well, it’s so secret that I don’t even remember exactly what I put in it. Its like anything else that I’ve ever cooked. I can remember the basic framework, but I can just about guarantee that it will never taste exactly the same way twice. But, since the tasting sessions are at least a year apart, no one knows the difference anyway. The theme this year was chipotle, so I added chipotle pepper sauce, cayenne, cumin and garlic to my mix. I kept the amounts small so no one would get too excited. My ‘youngest’ sister and I are the only two who really like spicy food. In addition the the turkey, there was ham, pinto beans, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry salad, stuffing, cakes, pies, broccoli salad, rolls, and several more things I can’t remember. Then again, I always ignore the casseroles.

My family isn’t much different than any other in some ways. Some people just make casserole. I don’t hold it against them, so long as I'm not expected to eat it. As a gesture of good will, I did eat some asparagus and cheese. I couldn't bring myself to even taste of the other thing, which may have included cheese, onions, potatoes and other unknown ingredients in a six-by-nine dish.

While get-togethers can bring a few casseroles, they also mean great home cooked food and more of it than anyone should ever eat.

With my family, food is the centerpiece of most of our meetings. It may be because I was brought up in a mountain home where hospitality was the 11th commandment. Or it could be due to the influence of old timey mountain churches, where meals could be planned for just about anything. You eat when a baby's announced, when you get married, when someone dies and sometime for reasons no one really understands. No matter, no one ever turned down hot biscuits just because they didn't know why someone baked them.

As for the family, I really enjoy having everyone together. Many moons ago, families all lived together in the same house or at least on the same family land. These days, we've all been scattered to the wind.

On the bright side, we do have a few more chances to get together, since most of us live fairly close together. Birthdays, Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving are usually pretty good excuses for everyone to spend some time together. We also all get along remarkably well, usually without even so much as a cross word shared between us. That's definitely something to be thankful for this and every year.

We all genuinely like one another, which is something else that isn't as common in families as it should be. As I headed back home stuffed much like a turkey myself, I realized that it was good to be with my family, but it also felt pretty good to be going back home again. Then again, no matter where I go or what I do, it always seems to feel good to come back home.
 

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