Tara's Thanksgiving Memories

  
While I'm thankful we're not traveling to Chicago today in the forecasted "snow storm," I do miss spending Thanksgiving with my family. Since getting married and moving to Minnesota we have spent our Thanksgivings here and Christmas in Chicago. Works well, and even though Thanksgiving traditions have changed in the house I grew up in, I still fondly remember and wish I could relive them! Here are a couple of my favorite memories:

1. Getting up early and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in our pjs while eating dutch coffee cake (yum!), monkey bread, fruit w/sauce, pineapple juice and grape juice. (I'm sure there was other food, but those are the traditional ones I remember looking forward to the most).

2. Going around the table during our Thanksgiving dinner and telling what we were each thankful for. I especially remember the year Cory and Ali announced they were thankful to be pregnant with my first nephew Miles!

3. Cranberry sauce...from a can. Yep, that used to be my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner. I especially liked it when it was left in the shape of the can with the ridges around the sides. Most years I ate about 75% of it myself. But don't try to feed me the real stuff...gross! :)

4. The traditional strawberry pretzel salad...a jello/pretzel/sweet cream cheese dessert, yet eaten with the meal and before the pies. For years now my sister Kirstin has taken over the task of making it and it sure is a family favorite!

5. Being forced to participate in the Kent Family Talent Show after dinner. One year Tyler and I dressed up as a pilgrim and an Indian (made of paper bags) and did a dance we learned from school. (This was when we were little, People). Most years we painfully played the instruments we were learning and forced everyone to listen. I think I sang, played violin, and played piano most of the time. These are all unfortunately on video tape...thankfully most people don't have VCRs anymore and the tapes will soon disintegrate anyway :) Even as painful as it was to participate sometimes and to remember the embarrassing performances, it's still somehow a happy memory :)

6. Singing worship music by the piano at night. After all the food was eaten and talents unleashed, usually Cory would sit down at the piano and the whole family would worship together. Best part of the day!

7. Ok, so this is the day after Thanksgiving memory, but it's associated with Thanksgiving, so I will proceed. Long long ago we used to go horseback riding the day after Thanksgiving (at least the girls did...I don't remember what the guys did). Then one year I suggested we get rid of our fake tree we'd been using forever and make it a tradition to cut down a real tree the day after Thanksgiving! So, that is currently the tradition (though I sadly don't get to enjoy it anymore living in MN). Going to the Christmas tree farm hours away, freezing our bums off walking in the cold, getting lost in the rows of trees, and waiting for mom to find the "perfect" Kent family Christmas tree (just like in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) while I am frozen from the eyes down. One that is so wide, it takes all of us to reach around to hug it holding hands. Usually it is ridiculously fat and tall and Dad complains it's way too big. But in the end, he cuts off a couple feet on the bottom, and there we have a perfect Kent family Christmas tree. Fun times.

Dad prepares to cut down the "Kent Family Christmas Tree!"

(I really like when my lists happen to be 7 numbers :)

This year we may be trying something new...spending Thanksgiving in the hospital meeting our son! We'll see... we are so incredibly thankful for our families and that the Lord chose to rescue us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Happy Thanksgiving!