Daily Cascade

Thanksgiving Memories

Prompt:
Write about your favorite Thanksgiving memories for your entry today.

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Thanksgiving memories serve as a reminder of the positive aspects of family life and the importance of appreciating what you have. It is a time for fostering a sense of connection and belonging that can be deeply meaningful and comforting.

My favorite Thanksgiving memories come back to me from decades ago, with my whole family at the dinner table in our Long Island home, plus some friends from upstate NY. In those years, I made sure that I didn’t have lumps in the gravy and had plenty of moisture in the dressing and it worked to everyone's taste-advantage. I remember very vividly one Thanksgiving when our older son, then 10 or 11, declared, "I love this food. There's nothing 'good-for-you' in it."

Race time forward to this year, now the same son, who just turned 56 a few days ago, is a vegetarian, well, almost vegan, and is a health-nut. Go figure! I loved those years that almost feel like as if they were from another lifetime. And they were, for it was when, as the nuclear family, we were all together at the Thanksgiving table. That will never happen again, but the joy of those years still linger.

Then, other later Thanksgiving memories have to do with my friend (RIP) who was my beloved ex-daughter-in-law's mother. She had us every year in her home and prepared a lavish dinner with her brother, daughter, and husband and we got to meet whoever else she invited. She was a lovely, chirpy woman and I miss her terribly. Then, when she got sick, there is that memory of our last Thanksgiving dinner together, at my son and then-daughter-in-law's house. That one was a very successful dinner, also, but somewhat bittersweet for me because it was the first Thanksgiving after my husband had passed away. Then, just a few months later, our kids separated to be divorced later, adding more bitter into the bittersweet.

Still, I realize what a lucky woman I have been to spend decades of Thanksgivings with all the lovely people in my life. I am deeply and truly thankful for those very special human beings, some of whom now gracing the beyond, and for every wonderful person God placed in my life, ever.

Happy Thanksgiving, WdC!