Late November, many leaves have turned to their fall colors, and or have fallen, there’s a chill in the air, High School Football is near its end, College Football is approaching Rivalry Weekend, the NFL is more than half way through its season, hockey and basketball are into their seasons, and this coming week has often been named the busiest food shopping week of the year. It is also the week prior to my favorite holiday, that being Thanksgiving Day.

When we celebrate many holidays, and special days throughout the year, some have songs that are attached to them that people, especially those with young children, sing along to in the car while traveling, or at home as days pass and holiday gets nearer. The obvious one is Christmas with its many carols, hymns, and ditties, next is our birthday with the traditional, “Happy Birthday,” the Fourth of July has its patriotic numbers, as does Memorial Day. Valentine’s Day has it’s love songs, and Thanksgiving has one we sang even if we didn’t follow the lyrics, that one with the opening lyric, “Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother’s house we go.”

We didn’t go to Grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving, as I never knew my maternal grandmother at all, because she passed before I was born, and though I remember my paternal grandmother, and some visits to her house, number one, we didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving at her house, and two, she passed away when I was five years old. Nevertheless, we liked singing that song and even sang along to it while watching Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving Special on television for so many years.

I’ve mentioned before that Thanksgiving was also one of Dad’s favorite holidays. He was very partial to the patriotic holidays, being that he was a veteran, and he did like Christmas, but Thanksgiving was a day to enjoy a day of reflection and gratitude for all the people and things we were fortunate to have in our lives. It is a day to appreciate, to gather as family and friends, break bread together, and not worry about the glitz, glitter, wrappings, the hustle, bustle, and expense of shopping and buying gifts, sending cards, the making sure you didn’t forget anyone before taking much time wrapping those gifts as beautifully as you can, before someone rips the wrappings off in a blink of an eye.

Thanksgiving is a day to enjoy foods that seem to be just for Thanksgiving, though we sometimes have them for Christmas too. You can have them anytime you’d like, but for us, we enjoyed them pretty much at Thanksgiving. Turkey, Stuffing, Candied Yams, Homemade Fruit or Vegetable Breads, Fresh baked rolls or bread, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Baked Squash, Cranberry Sauce (fresh or canned), a green and a yellow vegetable, and desserts like Pumpkin, and/or Apple Pie, pretty much made up our annual Thanksgiving Feast at 92 Bowen St. in Jamestown growing up. After dessert, the fruit and nut bowl came out, with the nut crackers and fruit and nut pickers for anyone who just wanted to munch on something. Kids played in a back room, some folks went to the living room to watch football, some chose to sit at the dining room table and talk after food was put away and dishes were washed and put away until needed again about four hours later because Mom thought we’d be hungry again after stuffing ourselves just a few hours prior, and a group of us meandered to the kitchen to play a little nickel-dime poker.

Around 7:00 pm, Mom and others would turn on the oven, and get the chestnuts ready to be roasted and enjoyed after about a half hour in the oven. Then, years later, when we were grown and married, about an hour after the chestnuts were enjoyed, we, very slowly (from all we had eaten), got up and did our version of what has been called, “The Five Italian Good-byes,” (Ours: The one at the door, the one on the porch, the one on the front sidewalk, the one before getting in the car, and the one sitting in the car with engine running before driving off.) After we married and had kids, and we told the kids it was time to go, they knew it would be, at least, another hour before we actually drove away from Mom and Dad’s. It was always a wonderful day focusing on togetherness with family, amazingly delicious food, a little bit of Football, maybe a game of cards, Pokeno, or Tripoli, and if you could stay awake after the tryptophan and before the second meal and chestnuts, you could enjoy some fun conversations as well.

There were no gifts, except the gifts of each other in our lives, the food we were grateful to have to eat, the togetherness and laughter we got to share, and the opportunity to celebrate it all with one another. I guess that’s why I was just like Dad in making Thanksgiving my favorite holiday.

Wishing you all, a Happy Thanksgiving. Share it in some way with those you love, those you may not know and who may not be as fortunate to have what we do (volunteer your time, donate some food, etc.), and raise your eyes upward in thanks for the blessings which have been bestowed upon us, and ask that those in need may also receive blessings from God, through all of us who have been blessed.