Reminiscing About Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving doesn't hold a special place in my heart anymore and that's really sad. I really try to make things special for my kids but I just don't have the heart to do it anymore. I still try though every year and I force myself that nothing is going to be the way is was again. I hate the fact that I'm a depressing person but I try to make the best of things. The Holidays are kind of rough around here because the Holidays was my grandma's "thing" and she's been gone for years now. My Gran loved and breathed Christmas. We always had almost every Holiday there was at my Gran's house. Although she had rheumatoid arthritis and had crooked feet from it, some how a miracle occurred on the Holidays, (Especially Christmas), and she moved around like an Olympic gold metalist. Every Holiday all the family would meet up at my grandma's house. Boy, I miss that lady. She wasn't the half of it though. Back then, the Holidays were special every where. The Thanksgiving sprite seemed like it was all November long in school.(Well, the elementary school anyway.) We would trace our hands and then color to transform them to turkeys. In art class we would draw full face pilgrims with pastels that would later be hung on the hallway walls so we would pass them in our line to lunch and point out which one was ours. We even did a Thanksgiving play one year when half the class was pilgrims and the other half was Indians. I, of course, protested against being a Pilgrim when I was nominated one by our teacher. Being a Pilgrim meant you had to wear a cut out top hat that we made in class and you had to be all boring. Indians, on the other hand, were the fun, crazy bunch that got to wear a cardboard head band that was stapled together with colored feathers glued on. I was one spoiled little bitch so I was able to convince the teacher to let me be a Pilgrim. At home my mom would start to hang up paper Thanksgiving window clings in the shapes of turkeys, Pilgrims, and fruit baskets. Usually the night before Thanksgiving was a great night for TV for us kids because they always had some kind of Thanksgiving special on. One I remember was Bugs Bunny Thanksgiving Diet that always had those "Bugs Bunny Thanksgiving Diet is brought to by Mcdonald's.." voice overs. Even those commercials are something that sticks to my memory. Almost every commercial during intermission was Christmas related just adding to the excitement that the Holiday that counted most was right around the corner now! Another Holiday favorite of mine was Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Charlie Brown invites his crew over for dinner but they end up bashing the old blockhead because his dog made a ghetto Thanksgiving dinner that consisted of sandwiches, popcorn, pretzels, and these round colorful things. I didn't understand what everyone's problem was? I thought Snoopy made a awesome meal. It was those colorful round things in the dish that caught my young. I wasn't exactly sure that they were but I figured they had to be jelly beans. Then the day of Thanksgiving came upon us.  If we would get there early the whole house would smell like cooking food and the Macy's Day parade would be on some where in the house. I remember walking in one year and telling my Aunt that my eyes hurt because I had just got done playing 99 straight rounds of Bubble Bobble that morning. My eyes were very painful and I still to this day can't beat that damn game. Although Thanksgiving was a great excuse to get a few days off from school for me but I have to admit that I loved going to my Gran's house for Thanksgiving dinner. I say "dinner" but it was more like lunch really. We always started eating around one o' clock I think. My Gran's feast was so big though that you really didn't have to eat for the rest of the week if you didn't want to. Gran was my mom's mother and my mom's whole side of the family is Italian, (That's where I got my disgustedly love for food at I guess.), so we had to have ravioli's before the turkey. My dad was Irish and German leaving me only half Italian and I am far from being a "Maria." I completely take after my dad's side even with the light hair and green eyes. Maybe that's why I never cared for Italian food then. Every one at the table every year used to look at me like I just grew another nose just because I didn't want to eat my ravioli's . I couldn't resist the turkey though. Even as a four year old kid I had to have the drumstick. It reminded of some cartoon where they were sitting around a table eating chicken legs and ripping the meat right off the bone. {I think it was from a scene in "Sword in the Stone"}  Some how even after the "dinner" we managed to eat dessert. I miss those times. Today as I sat and looked at my children I saw me in each one of their little faces. Although the Holidays don't feel as special to me anymore, especially since my Gran died, I try to make it special for them. Who knows, maybe when they are in their thirties they will reminisce back on when they were little on their online blogs just as I am doing now.