Thanksgiving Memories

Thanksgiving Day has always been a day of reflection for me, so I thought I'd bring out some photos I found of celebrations past. These first three are from my first Thanksgiving with my future in-laws, 1986, otherwise known as the "Year My Future Mother-in-Law Tried to Kill Me".

No, she didn't poison my food, she just insisted I eat way too much of it. The pumpkin pie at dessert finished me off and within 30 minutes I was giving it all back. Didn't taste as good coming up as it did going down.

My future bride is the only family member that didn't make it in the pictures.  She was blocked out behind me. That's my mother-in-law on the right.

Those two little kids are my niece and nephew.  She's now a veterinarian and he's a doctoral candidate.

My father-in-law made the best turkey in the world.  The.  Best.  You may notice there are strips of bacon attached to the bird.  The big fight each year was making sure you got some of that bacon.  My job for about 15 years was to help him move the bird from the baking pan to the serving tray, and it took both of us and four big forks to do it.  The thing was so tender it just about fell apart each year during the move.

This next shot is from 1993 and there are some new faces in the crowd - my kids.  My son was only two and my daughter five in this picture.  Sadly, three of the people in this shot are gone now.  Both of my wife's parents and her Aunt Esther are with us no more.  Circle of life, I guess.

We move forward a few years to 1997.  My daughter's older, but the turkey's as good as always.

In 2005 our family tradition was broken a bit when my dad and mom decided to fly the family to Oklahoma as part of their 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration.  We had Thanksgiving at my cousin Linda's home in Edmund along with my sister and her family.

Since then Thanksgiving Day has taken us lots of places. We celebrated at our house in 2007 with my daughter home from college. In 2008 we celebrated in her dorm room at Sonoma State University. 2009 we met the family for a tough first Thanksgiving after my dad died at a local restaurant. Last year it was just me, my wife and son at home. Today will find the four of us at my daughter's apartment in Rohnert Park along with my wife's brother (we're picking my son up from Sacramento State on the way).

Who knows what next year will bring?