Thanksgiving Memories

I already shared our family's biggest Thanksgiving memory - my parent's wedding on Thanksgiving morning 1955. 

One of my favorite memories (no photos) I can share now that my mom has passed would be in 1974. My boyfriend and I had already been guests at two Thanksgiving dinners and my mom (not really a cook) had scheduled hers for 6 pm.  We waddled in the house, I helped with last minute table setting and she pulled out the turkey. Which was raw because she never turned the oven on. By the next Thanksgiving I was married and Thanksgiving became my problem. Since I invited both families, it also meant only one dinner. 

Thanksgiving 1993. My brothers and there families came from out of state for Thanksgiving. My mother hired a photographer to take family pictures on Thanksgiving day. It was below freezing with high winds. There is one photo with our hair straight up in the air. 

This thanksgiving was maybe around 1997. We have a tiny house. In order to seat everyone, including extended family who all have larger houses than ours, we would move all our furniture into the garage and set up in the living room. To get to the kitchen you went out the front door (above) walked around the house and went in the kitchen door. Basically I stood in the kitchen doorway and handed things to someone at a table. 

2019, the cutest little turkey granddaughter. 

Zoom Thanksgiving 2020. The guy in the photo with the fanta bottle is our governor spying on us. We all agreed it was the best Thanksgiving because no one had to clean their house or drive. But did we learn? No.

2001.  I couldn't bake one pie or two pies or three pies. I made individual pies for everyone to enjoy. 

It's not just Thanksgiving, it is the day my teenage tech support comes to visit. 

My youngest daughter and her husband purchased a large home with an open floor plan a few years ago. She has three rooms full of tables that all flow into her huge island for serving. She has been crowned Queen of Thanksgiving. This year I am showing up with a ham, oyster dressing and ice cream pies. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

*Update - this was the seating set up at my daughter's house for the football game. I hope they are joking, lol. 

How I am Assisting in the Bathroom Remodel

(written on Monday) I hope you don't mind that this post is out of chronological order.  We are living in chaos over here, you know! 

Today they need to get into my closet where they removed pieces of the drywall in the back of the closet to add additional pieces of wood as support for the shower grab bars and other items we needed to screw into walls.  This meant I had to take every single item in my closet and pile it on the bed. 

Yes, I know I am a clothes hoarder. Time is meaningless to me and I find it shocking that clothing that I paid good money for in 1985 is now FORTY years old. That is impossible.  I worked in offices when people in offices wore professional clothing. I took good care of my clothes . . . Forty years? Of course my 90's clothes are only, gulp 30 years old, and my millenial wardrobe . . .  

But it was hidden in the closet! Out of sight, out of mind. In addition to too many clothes, I carry several size ranges of clothes.  Someday I might be able to wear a smaller size. And I guess instead of buying new clothes I will choose to wear ancient clothing in out of date styles? 

I did sort an entire garbage bag of dresses (dresses, lol) that I will never wear again.  I found the plastic shoe boxes with my high heels - like I could balance in heels - like new, barely worn. 

All of that is going to the clothing bank tomorrow. I barely made a dent.  AND to make it more fun, they just re-drywalled the back of the closet and I can't put any clothes back until tomorrow. So I had to carry this mess to another room to sleep tonight. 

The first day of demolition I went out of town to a craft store.  Halloween was 70-80% off on clearance and I guess I felt the need for another doll house.  

I am slowly painting the house and have decided it will stay as is for now as I move to another dollhouse.  

I bought this one last year and was thinking of doing it as a second Christmas doll house. Please ignore the wrong furniture in the wrong house.

The problem is that this material just drinks paint.  I am running out of paint after two coats and I am not sure if it will be safe to enter another craft store. 

And, one of the dishes I am taking to our families Thanksgiving is my grandmother's and my mother's oyster dressing.  The best part of this recipe is that a woman I never heard of published my grandmother's recipe in this cookbook in 1999. This way I can find my recipe every year.  My guess is that her grandmother and my grandmother found the recipe in the same magazine or newspaper. 

Thank you Alice King of Nevada, Ohio. 

I got my shelf stable whipping cream on my field trip to Trader Joe's along with six boxes of the Trader Joe's Chocolate Peppermint bread mix.  I need to make a return trip, we already had one loaf this morning with the grandkids. 

And I found petit fours! I did not check the date and they expire tomorrow so we ate one box as after school snack today and I guess we will have another tea party after school tomorrow.  That was not my original plan, lol. 

Memory Monday 3

If you were here last Monday, I introduced you to myself Mary, my Aunt Mary, my Great Grandmother Mary, plus an Anne and two Sarahs. This week we are looking back at my paternal grandmothers. 

My dad's paternal family came here from Germany in 1870, his maternal family came here from Germany in the 1850's.  Both sides settled in the county to the west of us. More "stayers".  

My grandfather's family has kept up with the relatives in this country and in Germany to this day and actually has organized the family as a 501c3. Under that they have incorporated the family home, which is now a bed and breakfast, and the little church across the street which is used for family weddings. There is a reunion every summer, a quarterly newsletter, every other year there is a trip to Germany, the off year German relatives come here.  The family history has been published as a two volume set.  I am not joking.  

However my grandfather's father died when he was an infant and he was raised by his maternal grandmother. He never had any family photos of his dad's side of the family and was not active with the cousins, etc.  

My grandmother was part of a big farm family on the far side of the other county. When I joined ancestry I found that the big extended family all took DNA tests and there are very detailed family trees for everyone.  

Here are the photos, lol. 

This is my grandmother Mary (yes, another Mary) posing with my father. He was over a decade younger than his brothers who were in business with his dad. He was very close to his mother.  She passed away the year I was born. 

Here is another photo of my grandmother which was unmarked. 

This is great grandfather's mother who came here from Germany and her name is Johannette Katrina Christiana but was sometimes called . . . Mary! 

My grandfather's mother was widowed when he was 18 months old.  She and her father both died in the influenza epidemic and he was raised by his maternal grandmother Isabell.  Here is a family photo after his father's death, my great-great grandparents Isabell, and Jacob, my grandfather and my great grandmother Maud. Isabell's Mennonite family came to Ohio from Pennsylvania. 

And here is the only photo I have of my great grandmother Mary, mother of my paternal grandmother Mary.  I texted a member of the family who had done all the DNA testing to see if anyone had a photo (because photos are my favorite) and this was the only one they shared. 

This Mary's mother was Amelia Mary and her husband's mother was Maria, which counts as another Mary to me, lol. 

I don't have many photos from my dad's side of the family, but I will end with a funny one that I have shared before. It's my paternal grandfather with his two wives. 

His brother in-law Charles is on the left, my grandfather, my grandmother Mary and Charles's wife Helen on the right.  Charles died of cancer about two years before Mary died of a heart condition and about two years after that my widowed grandfather married his widowed sister in-law Helen. 

Skip this - it's sad.

 

It was a normal weeknight. I opened my computer to Facebook and saw the posts "pray for these babies", "oh, sweet jesus pray".  I knew it was bad. I had no idea how bad.

A young lady was in an abusive situation. Her husband told her he was working out of town. She made arrangements with the father of her seven year old to help move her new baby, the little boy and herself out of the house. 

He did not go out of town. He came to the house where he shot and killed her first husband, shot his own baby three times in the head, shot the seven year old three times, and despite the pleas of the mother to just shot her, shot himself in the head.  The little boy was rushed to the hospital where he died. 

The community is devastated. Everyone has a connection to the family. My youngest daughter used to teach with the little boy's grandmother. She told me she is a mimi like me; was always planning activities with all her grandchildren. 

The young man that was killed was her son. He was lauded by all former classmates and co-workers. He was always willing to help anyone and coached all the teams that his little boy belonged to.  

And the baby. How could someone shoot their baby? 

Then last night was the Christmas parade in a nearby village. The parade started and the last few participants were getting ready to go. A truck went to pull forward and the brakes went out. He was able to steer away from hitting a float of children head-on but did hit the corner, then careened into another vehicle also pulling a float. A woman was caught in between vehicles and was life-flighted. One woman was transported with an arm injury. At least 15 children were evaluated at the scene, but were just "shaken up". The driver of the original truck is devastated; the state patrol have stated that preliminary investigation is showing a malfunction of the truck. 

The parade was cancelled, they did still have Santa available for children and lit the village tree. And said a prayer for everyone affected in this accident.  

It's been a rough week in these parts.