This Thanksgiving, win a Frisco Library book bag!
If you post a comment below, you’ll get a chance to win one of FPL’s new book bags – we just got these, and we’re so excited about them that we’d like to share! And if you’d like one for yourself (or you’re looking to get a little something this holiday for your favorite library lover), you can find details here. Proceeds benefit the Friends of the Frisco Public Library.
Okay, on with the blog!
Ah, Thanksgiving.
Turkey roasting in the oven. Pies cooling on a table (always a doilied tablecloth in our house.) Men watching football in the living room, women chatting in the kitchen and kids everywhere. At least, that describes my family’s Thanksgiving.
And as Thanksgiving nears, and I remember all the little traditions that made my family’s holidays special, I wondered what my coworker’s family traditions were. And for that matter, what our patron’s traditions are, what traditions you may be starting now.
So here we have it — all of Youth Services favorite Thanksgiving traditions from childhood!
We always had such a big family and such a small house that we could never all fit around the table together. Luckily, my grandmother kept her dining room table right next to the open living room and whomever didn’t get a seat at the table fought over the hunting-themed TV trays, brown, camo-covered trays with twelve-point bucks peeking behind bushes waiting to be covered by your dinner plate. I would always see families on TV that ate their Thanksgiving dinners around grand tables while wearing their Sunday best. And I always felt sorry for them. None of them had awesome twelve-point buck TV trays!
–Lisa Kilian
For most people, the cooler November weather evokes Thanksgiving memories like the smell of the turkey roasting in the oven. But for me, it’s a can of black olives. I didn’t care much about the fancy table setting or even the Turkey when I was a kid. My focus was those black, briny gems that went on the relish tray, which ended up on the tips of my fingers and eaten one-by- one. My mother was an etiquette freak, and it was a hard sell to let me and my sisters temporarily ditch the Thanksgiving table decorum. She relented, and to this day, it’s a comical and very special memory. Thanks Mom!
– Jan Jackson
We go to Maggionos! That’s it!
- Jaclyn Pierce
I grew up in an immigrant Dominican-American home, so I never ate turkey on Thanksgiving growing up! The menu was a pork shoulder — “pernil” in Spanish. The meat was so tender that it would just melt in your mouth. It was accompanied by a rice and pinto bean dish called “moro.” My mom would always make a cabbage salad that had beets and tomatoes with a vinegar and oil dressing. The salad dressing was homemade, of course. My grandmother would spend quite a bit of time frying plantains into the traditional “tostones.” These little tostones require double frying, so they took forever, but they were worth the wait! For dessert my aunt would bring over a tray filled with “turones de almendras” and “dulces de leche.” Both of these desserts were from the Dominican Republic and they were served with some black coffee or a “café con leche,” a coffee with milk. We would all cram into the kitchen and eat, laugh and not once did we notice that the turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans or the pumpkin pie were missing! ¡Happy Dia de Dar Gracias!
– Mayra Diaz
Thanksgiving at my house growing up was very small and quiet. It was just me with my mom, dad, and little brother. We didn’t have a big family and our extended family lived many states away. I remember thinking how fun it would be if we had a large family with crazy cousins, annoying uncles, and loud aunts. We ate the traditional turkey, gravy, stuffing, and my mom’s famous boxed mashed potatoes. I didn’t appreciate the lavish Thanksgiving feast when I was a kid like I do now, so I would always ask if we could just order pizza or Chinese food. My parents never gave in, not even once. We always watched the Macy’s parade and of course our beloved Dallas Cowboys. Aw… good memories!
- Ashley Allen
My family’s Thanksgiving tradition: NAPS. Lots and lots of naps. Boy do I love naps.
- Katie Breithaupt
Thanksgiving at the Poore house is a most ordinary affair. We get together with our average sized, extended family. Why, we eat turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. We use forks, knives, and spoons. We drink out of glasses. We sit in chairs. Do we watch the parade? Certainly. Do we watch the football game? Undoubtedly. The only way we could be more traditional is if we were painted into a Norman Rockwell portrait. Even that, though, seems somehow too radical to conceive. So I guess this year will be much the same, though maybe we could dare to add celery to the stuffing. Madness!
- Amanda Poore
In addition to the turkey and other usual sides, I make dumplings. I use my grandmother’s recipe that my aunt passed on to me.
- Cindy Boatfield
Growing up my thanksgiving celebrations were always in October and just a smidge north of the contiguous United States. Yes, we have Canadian Thanksgiving and aside from a lack of green bean casserole, it’s basically the exact same thing as in the States. Gathered with loved ones we would set up the table with turkey, mashed potatoes and all the stereotypical eats you can imagine. Then my mum would have everyone take turns telling what they were thankful for. It was torturous just staring at that food while everyone spoke their thanks but I’m happy now to think back, even on my mum’s lengthy speeches.
- Warren Shanks
The contest!
All you have to do is leave a comment below with your own “turkey tradition,” and we’ll pick a random commentor as a winner!
What do you get? A FREE brand new FPL Book Bag, complete with FPL Swag and goodies.
Win a FREE FPL Book Bag!
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Lisa Kilian |
| Library Assistant | |
| lkilian@friscotexas.gov |
Tags: contests, family, fpl book bag, friends, thanksgiving, traditions
The quality of Thanksgiving Day for my family was driven by a single event – did the Dallas Cowboys win or lose that day? You see, my dad was a little intense about the Cowboys back then. If they won, let joy be unconfined! If they lost, fill your plate, put on your coat, and go outside and eat with the family dog. Ah, good times!
Our tradition at Thanksgiving of course is to eat turkey,stuffing,mashed potatoes,corn on the cobb & fresh rolls with a side of cranberry sauce. But, not until we go around the table and tell everyone what we are thankful for.
After filling up we lay and watch the cowboys win!
My favorite Thanksgiving tradition is to annoy everyone by endlessly talking about my Thanksgiving Spreadsheet. I’ve perfected it over the years, and now it’s a step-by-step guide for the perfect, stress-free Thanksgiving… from the complete shopping list (sorted by area of the grocery store, then alphabetically by item) to the timeline of the big day, which details everything from making the morning coffee to presenting the beautifully-roasted bird.
Some say that I’m Type-A… but, really, I just want to be able to pour a glass of wine and enjoy spending time with my guests instead of being worried about dinner!
My most treasured Thanksgiving tradition was helping my grandmother make her famous stuffing. We began by making a visit to the bread store to buy day old bread. We would then set out the pieces of bread to dry out. Bread was everywhere: the kitchen counters, the dining table, even on top of the washer and dryer! We would then spend what felt like hours tearing the bread into pieces. The best part came next. We would place in the bread in a giant bowl and my grandmother would pour melted butter, eggs, celery, and her secret spice blend over the bread. I then got to mix and mush it up with my hands. I can still remember how the bread felt between my fingers!
i have been celebrating Thanksgiving for 10 years now
My first four Thanksgivings were celebrated in Moldova, Eastern Europe. I was a Peace Corps employee, and every thanksgiving our country director would take a trip to a neighbouring country to buy 25 turkeys that would feed around 250 PC Volunteers and PC Staff. I am not posisitive but i think most side dishes were canned food sent from states. it was such a fun day i will be frank i did not like the food, but i loved the atmosphere the idea of giving thanks, and the adult show and tell that followed the dinner. The PCVs would put on a 2 hour show , they would sing, make funny as hell “Saturday Night worthy Skits”, tell poems it so soooooo SO much fun!!! After my texan husband brought me here we celebrated Thanksgiving with his family, which to me was huge (i only have one sister and my husband has 3 siblings, 4 nephews, 1 grandnephew). My mother-in-law was the heart of Thanksgiving always warm and giving, smiling with enough food to feed a platoon. This year we will celebrate it without her, first year without mom, i can not even imagine Thanksgiving without her its like this day lost its most important element. My thanksgiving keep shrinking they went from 250 down to minus one this year. But for my 2 little girls we will celebrate and get together and have the turkey and hope that with the years to come i will be able to instill the same beautiful feeling of togetherness and gratitude in my children.
My favorite childhood tradition for Thanksgiving was spending the week with my Grandmother. She would made homemade tamales — a laborious but much beloved side to the family’s Thanksgiving meal. Days before would have us both cleaning the husks, soaking them in water, making the masa from scratch, cooking the beef with seasonings, and finally creating the tamales by steaming them the day of Thanksgiving. I loved being in the kitchen early at 5am on Thanksgiving Day helping Grandma get the turkey ready and side dishes going. By noon, Grandma’s small home was filled to the brim with uncles, aunts, and cousins. There were so many people that we had to have people eat in shifts: men all ate first as a hispanic tradition, then the children, and finally all of the women ate with a lot of wine — laughter and gossip filling the small kitchen while the men watched football and kids played outside. I recall my mother and aunt in their kitchen aprons doing clean up duty after all 35 of us feasted — and my mom’s mirthful laughter as she and my aunt did the dishes. Good times. Such wonderful memories.
Thanksgiving has always been about family. No meal was ever prepared by just my mother but the whole family would chip in every year to cook some part of the Thanksgiving meal. My mother took care of the turkey, my brother was famous for his pumpkin pies and cookies, I helped with side dishes like mashed potatoes and green beans, my dad would usually peel the potatoes and do the grocery shopping for the big day. My sister usually helped as well with setting the table or other needs in the kitchen. Our day was not complete unless we had invited friends over to eat with us. We usually gave thanks to God for our many blessings and dug in to eat the feast. After our afternoon meal, naps were always followed by watching various football games. The day was relaxing and enjoyable.
Since my immediate family is overseas, my turkey tradition has been with my in-laws for the last several years. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and I each cook part of our meal and then we feast that day and usually have enough leftovers to last us through the weekend
I am very blessed to have some awesome in-laws!
We started a new tradition this year. We went shopping at midnight and shopped till the morning. It was so much fun to be the first to get the great deals!
Turkey tradition for me is cooking with friends and family and then getting together after the long hours to eat a wonderful meal! Then we get to pull out our Christmas decor and start decorating!!
Turkey tradition for our family is a combination of different family recipes, relaxing and joking around, and eating to our hearts content. I love how our Thanksgivings are all about quality laid back family time!