Thanksgiving Day to You

I have to tell you that this day means many different things to me. Most of all it means that I am thankful for the family and friends I have. I’m most thankful to my beautiful wife and my five daughters. Of course I have to add my first grand daughter to that list too. Life has not been easy for all of us here in the Papamoka home but it has been a blessing to see the family come together as one around one sister to show her that we are and will always be one family forever. All of the past is gone and we see only the brightest of futures.

My Mom passed away in 1993, and Dad in 2003, so I don’t have this day to spend with them but I do have it to spend with my babies and my wife and her family. I remember as a kid the Thanksgiving Holiday, Dad would be doing most of the cooking for the main event but my Aunt Kitty that lived with us always made the cranberry sauce the night before. I was just a kid but she let me watch, she would let me stir the berries before they boiled, then she would ask me to back away as she strained them over a sifter. Then she would take me up on her lap as they cooled and tell me what my Dad would make for all of us the next day. Mom was sick for many years with heart disease and multiple back operations and Aunt Kitty took me on as her own. She never had any children. Later on she took on my little sister as her own and we grew up to be better people for it. Those were some tought times but those were also some good times filled with many memories, some good, some not so good. It’s all in the past now and the good memories are more prevalent now.

I made cranberry sauce with my thirteen year old and with my eleven year old daughter from scratch to travel with us to family far away. We made whole berries and we made jellied cranberry sauce. I like to do it every year before Thanksgiving Day with as many of them that want to make it with me. I like to call it building memories and a life long lesson for them to pass on to their babies some day when I am long gone. The day is not just about having a turkey and all the fixings that goes with it, it’s also about the love of family and working together to make the day and meal all that more special. Food is just food if it does not have the added spice of love added to it from the people you love that made it for you for this special day.

Enjoy the day with the people you love and realize how much your life is just that much different from knowing the person that passes you the potatoes, or the squash, or the turkey, or the gift of memories built into the cranberry sauce. If you have family and friends to share this day with then you are blessed. Be thankful for it.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to you and your family and friends. I wish you love and happiness on this day.

Now shut the damn computer off and interact with your family and friends! Don’t make me raise my voice! Don’t make me tell you twice!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Day to you and yours…

Papamoka

Thanksgiving Thoughts

I’m hoping and praying that everyone that reads this post has family or friends to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with.

My family will have started the cooking event the night before with the pies courtesy of Mamamoka. Several of our girls were supposed to help Dad make the cranberry sauce but the only one that came up to bat at the stove soon became bored because Disney had a better form of entertainment on the television. I survived the process. Uncle Emeril has nothing on the Ocean Spray package instructions and recipe to make cranberry sauce from scratch.

I’m dreading the rest of the cooking but I’m looking forward to the meal, the smiles from my family and the pure joy of all of us together for this holiday. Having five daughters I plan to enlist many of them for active duty in peeling, prep work, dish washing and anything that will make the process of cooking the feast for Thanksgiving day easier for the cook. Post meal they will be called back for active duty to help with the clean up and like W I have no qualms about multiple enlistment.

Mom no longer cooks the turkey due to a near miss experience with a fire, a turkey, and a towel used as an oven mitt that caught fire, caught Mom’s pant’s on fire too. Long story short, she is in therapy and the fire department in the house was able to save her life but not the towel. She misses that towel and I miss her cooking the meal.

We have a few friends coming for dinner and we always enjoy their company. I’ve already told the kids that Daddy has dibs on the couch and the clicker but I have a feeling that the turkey and all the fixings will get the best of me and the NFL game will be turned to the Cartoon Network or some other diabolical anti learning channel. No matter, my eyes will be watching a private screening of whatever my little brain dreams up. HD has nothing on dreams.

From the Bay State to the world, I wish you the best of family and friends in what is the beginning of the holidays we all love the most. Except for the poor folks last standing at the sink washing and cleaning up after the chef. BACK TO YOUR POST!

Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for reading our thoughts and creative works here at Papamoka Straight Talk. I’m thankful that my friend Mike Jones post’s his amazing works here and I’m thankful that he is my friend first. I’m personally thankful that you think this site is worthy of your time. Now shut the damn computer off and go enjoy your family and friends!

Papamoka

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