Thanksgiving and Mike's Birthday!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  My second son was born two days before Thanksgiving in 1980. 

Ever since then, Thanksgiving either preceded, shared or followed his birthday.  The coming together of all that has been a high point of the year for me.  We had to figure out not only Thanksgiving but also his birthday celebration.  We quickly figured out that having parties for him meant doing it a week early or a week late.  We were challenged to make his actual birthday special as a family.  We did no preparation for Christmas until after the celebration of his birthday on November 25th.  Thanksgiving and his birthday was a time to give thanks and celebrate our family. 

For a several years when the boys were teenagers we served Thanksgiving dinner at our church. The men cooked dozens of turkeys in various ways. One of the organizers was from Louisiana, so frying turkeys was his popular addition to traditional fare.   Most of those crispy, tender, juicy birds literally were consumed before they made it to the kitchen to be carved. We once spent an entire day serving and only got a taste of one of them. My boys who had never had a fondness for turkey fell in love with fried turkey.  

Before it became popular, fried turkeys became a part of our family meal.  We have never burned down a house, garage or deck.  We did have a pot malfunction one year when we put a turkey in the grease that still had some ice deep in its cavity.  The two extreme temperatures coming together  caused the grease to boil over.  We had to replace the gas line to the turkey pot before we could make the next turkey.  We have used a great deal of peanut oil, and we have persuaded several relatives as to the deliciousness of fried turkey.  One of my daughter-in-laws is from Long Island.  Her family enjoyed a turkey in Texas at Thanksgiving and then bought the equipment to make it at their Christmas feast.  My son had his hands full preparing turkeys that year for the extended family in Long Island.

We always invite anyone who wants  to be with us to share the day. When we were in the college and young adult days for my sons, my tiny home in Austin once had enough young people in it to field two football teams after the turkey was consumed.

The other never changing tradition was me preparing my mother's "Refrigerator Rolls".   I have passed the recipe on but I still do the preparation of them for now.  Eating them fresh from the oven while we prepare the rest of Thanksgiving dinner is part of our tradition. 

But mostly Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for having a loving family and for finding the right time to enjoy Mike's birthday celebration.  One year his birthday fell on Thanksgiving, so he took us all to a Cowboys game for his birthday!  We pre-empted Thanksgiving for his birthday and celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday!   Now that was some awesomeness. 

I realize daily how blessed I am to have two handsome sons, two gorgeous daughters by marriage and one fabulous granddaughter to share love with.  Thanksgiving is a time of the year when we celebrate that love.  Truthfully, we have our traditions - fried turkey and homemade rolls, but the greatest tradition of all is the love we share!  Happy Thanksgiving!  Happy Birthday, Mike!