Thanksgiving Memories...

Two J's and his Uncle Ralph cutting into the pies at Thanksgiving!

I would love to create memories for and with my son to hold on to for when life changes and traditions are harder to keep, or if he is ever away and homesick, he can reflect back on and warm his heart with them.

I have some wonderful Thanksgiving Memories. And that is exactly what they do for me.

Of course the favorite traditional foods Mom cooked for us is on the top of my memories... we always had

• ham and turkey
• sweet potato pies (note: note pumpkin... we are Southerners remember!)


• congealed salad (I don't even know what this is, but it's green jiggles like jello, but doesn't look like jello, and is really good)


• sage dressing (it's really firm and cut into squares and you pick it up with your hands... unless it's smothered in gravy)


• Gravy


• Rice (we always had rice instead of potatoes... it must be a southern thing?)


• Macaroni Pie (it's not really pie)


• Congo Squares


• Rolls


• Mom's green beans (they are just green beans, but she puts them in the crock pot the night before and they are juicy, not squeaky, if that makes sense)

And my favorite Thanksgiving story is when we lived in Burien in the big brick house on Des Moines Way. My Dad worked for the Gunters dispatching trucks, and at the shop lived a wild cat. My Dad was not fond of cats, and always gave me a hard time for feeding the cat when I would go down to his work. But I always had the support of Mama Moody who was a real cat lover. She named the cat inky, because she was a calico and looked like she had been spilled with black ink. I loved this cat, and earned her trust over a very long period of time, but she was still not as tame as an ordinary house cat.


It was the week of Thanksgiving and Mama Moody was staying with us for the holiday. My Dad came home from work with Inky the cat in his truck... it was quite a story of the cat running from the seat of the truck across the dash, and back under the seat... all very quick and frantically... the entire drive home. But needless to say it was one of the very best gifts he has ever given me.

The funny part of the story is that the night before Thanksgiving my Mom made her sweet potato pies and left them out on the counter to cool... seems like there were 3 or 4 of them. And we woke up Thanksgiving morning to the cutest most perfect little kitty paw prints across ALL of the pies.

Mama Moody advised us to just cut that piece of each pie out and never let me Dad hear a word about it. So if I remember correctly, we did just that! And to this day, I don't think he knows this story.

I am so grateful to my parents for the memories and love I felt growing up, that helps me through my little selfish snits I get into as an adult. It helps me to be a better parent and a better wife and I am so thankful for their examples to me.

Happy Thanksgiving!!