Thanksgiving (changing) Traditions
Losing those we love is hard all unto itself yet when you approach the holidays, any holiday, birthday or special occasion for that matter it takes on a new dimension. No matter how hard I try to prepare myself for it, I'm never ready. And for me there was no use trying to skip or ignore it, I just seemed to think about it even more then. In my mind the holidays had never changed, yet when I sat down and started thinking about past holidays ~ I discovered an evolution of changing holidays ~ even before my family went to heaven.
To start with, holiday traditions are simply the festivities that families have created together and best shared with others, yet unbeknownst to me, as time went by these traditions changed.
Here is an example of my ever-changing Thanksgiving holiday traditions.
Thanksgiving at my parents' home went from mom doing all the cooking, to me helping, to extended family and friends gathering in the kitchen and helping prepare and cook.
We had Thanksgiving at my brothers which usually involved a smoked or fried turkey and one time we even had what he referred to as a 'beer can turkey.' All delicious 😋
I married & we built a house ~ Thanksgiving had a new home but following somewhat of the same traditions. We did, however, have more people stopping by during the day and lots of folks cooking their own special recipes.
My parents were members of the Shriner's organization and as they got older Thanksgiving took on another change, we would join them at the Shriner's for Thanksgiving lunch. Giving my parents bragging rights that we lived here and a loved to join them. After that we would visit my husband's sisters, then down the street to our friend's house ~ that was a lot of eating going on.
Eventually my husband's sister was going to their kids home for Thanksgiving and we had one less meal to eat. My parents moved to an assisted living facility, so I would join them there for Thanksgiving lunch, no more Shriner's 😔
About ten years ago we began participating in the annual Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. Needless to say, even the Turkey Trot itself has changed over the years ~ we’ve gone from jogging for a good time placement to walking with strollers just happy to finish 😊
Today, my family is in heaven and I’m still here on earth missing them even more during the holidays. But I’m trying to create new Thanksgiving traditions which consists of ~ up early for the turkey trot and we either end up at our friend's house or our house for our Thanksgiving feeding frenzy. Thankful for my extended family, friends, great memories of my family and traditions 😊
Peace and Love