I certainly never dreamed that Ned's show would bring me to tears, but today it did.
Clyde played 3 Thanksgiving-related songs and the two of them started talking about Thanksgiving, what they are doing this year, and memories of past Thanksgivings. Clyde is my age and so his memories go back as far as mine do.
Then Ned shared that it would be just the four of us for dinner on Thanksgiving and that we will be having roast beef instead of turkey. I'll be making pumpkin pie...and I'll also make stuffing, because those are the two dishes that I really would miss if we didn't have them. We eat turkey so often in this house that it's not a big deal to have turkey (though it is a big dealt to have a whole roast turkey and not just turkey breast or ground turkey).
Ned talked about the years when we went to Walt's mother's condo at Lake Tahoe (now, I guess, our condo, shared with his sister). We did Thanksgiving up there for many years and it was perfect because there was no pressure on anybody to "host" the dinner. Walt's mother cooked the turkey and the rest of us brought the side dishes. I made pumpkin pie. Tom made baked Alaska. We didn't spend much time watching TV, but played lots of board games and card games and after dinner we would play charades.
I still smile thinking of Walt's mother trying to remember that you don't speak when playing charades.
There were a lot of us at those dinners. The seven of us, Walt's mother, Jeri, Ned & Marta, Walt's brother and sister and their significant others (later spouses). We also frequently had foreigners with us celebrating Thanksgiving at Tahoe too.
The only family member who wasn't there was my own mother, who never celebrated holidays with us after she remarried, but spent the holidays with her new family. I'm still hurt about that. After her husband died, she came back to our family.
When we stopped having Thanksgiving at Tahoe because Walt's mother couldn't handle the altitude any more, then I hosted here, or my mother hosted a smaller group at her place. We didn't have the card games or charades, but we still had the good food and a good time.
As I listened to Ned I found myself getting teary, thinking of those who are no longer here. The two grandmothers, of course, and Paul & David...is it really more than 20 years since they died?? How can that be?
I have many things to be thankful for and I am thankful that we are well and that we will be together with Ned and Marta. But oh how I miss those big Thanksgiving dinners with all the family together.
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
at Tahoe, but this is one....family and foreign students.
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