November 19, 2017

Sunday Stealing: Thanksgiving Reflections

It's late Saturday night here or technically, very early Sunday morning and there's no chance I'm going to sleep for a bit...I'm too wide awake after babysitting our youngest grandson till 12:30 and now the cold front is moving through with high winds and driving rain. It's very, very LOUD and the dogs are a bit antsy with it. So, it's just you, me, a Christmas movie on the Hallmark Channel and this week's Sunday Stealing questions. Thank you, Bev, for providing entertainment for insomniacs each week.

Let's get on with things. Bev found some great questions just in time for Thanksgiving which is a time to reflect for most of us.



From Bev:

With Thanksgiving coming up this week, I thought it might be fun to find a set of Thanksgiving-related questions.  This came from a site called Documented Legacy





1.  What made you feel patriotic this year?  Gosh, I can't think of anything specific at the moment. I am a very patriotic person in general with a lot of pride in and love for my country.  Even when we are behaving badly I am thankful to live in a country that allows us each to hold and express our own views.

2 . What do you value most about your life?  Other than my faith in God, that would definitely be my family. All of it from my husband, kids, and grandkids, to my mom and stepdad, to my cousins and all the family I inherited when I married my hubby. (He's the middle sibling of seven so that's a LOT of inlaws!)


3.  What do you appreciate about your friendships?  Companionship, shared interests, deep conversations, dependability, laughter, honesty, accountability...I love my friends. They are varied and they all bring something different to the relationship.


4.  Name one person who can make you laugh, even months later. Why?
  My friend's son. He's only a few years younger than me so we come from similar pasts and have many of the same points of reference. He has a wickedly, intelligent, and slightly nerdy sense of humor (the same as me) so he often has me laughing till I cry.


5
.  What is the funniest thing you remember about a Thanksgiving past?  It wasn't funny at the time, but now we look back on it and laugh... My aunt sort of invited us for Thanksgiving one year along with my mom and her sons and all her grandchildren.  There were about 20 people for dinner and she had a 10 pound turkey, one bowl of mashed potatoes, one dish of green bean casserole, and about a million stuffing balls. My two cousins and the male cousins are....well, to be blunt, HOGS. They loaded up their plates and didn't give a thought to anyone else. The rest of us got about 10 bites of food. We were starving as we headed to Thanksgiving with my husband's family. We arrived just as they finished cleaning up after the meal. Even after hearing our story of woe, they didn't offer us any food. Not even a piece of pie. My hubby got mad and we didn't stay long. We ended up stopping at Kmart (it was the first year it was open on Thanksgiving) to buy mac and cheese and a few other odds and ends to make up a meal at home.


6.  Do you have any unusual traditions, rituals or habits around Thanksgiving?  Nope. We are terribly traditional.

7.  Name one ancestor that you think about on Thanksgiving and tell us why. 
I obviously didn't know them, but on Thanksgiving I always think about John and Priscilla Alden of the Mayflower. They are something like my 12-times great grandparents. I know it's not in vogue to think kindly of the Pilgrims these days, but I am in awe of what courage it took to get on that ship and sail to a new and unknown land, of the strength it took to get through those first few years, and to be part of building a new nation. I not only think kindly toward them, but I admire them and am proud to claim them as ancestors.


8.  Is there a family heirloom at the Thanksgiving table? What its story?  I don't know of anything specific, but my family is all about antiques and passing things on so there is bound to be something that belonged to someone else.


9.  What is your favorite part about Thanksgiving Day?  I like that my stepdad gives up football while we are there to watch the Macy's parade and the dog show (the dog show is a relatively new tradition) and I like the family playing games together after dinner is over and the table cleared.


10. What random act of kindness did you perform or that was done to you this year that makes you feel grateful?  I can think of kindnesses done for me and by me, but I can't say any were random. The one I'm especially thankful for is my boss covering for me during a very busy time at work when we were already shorthanded so I could have the week of our daughter's wedding off.


11. What do you appreciate about the change of seasons?  I appreciate the variety and the different feel of each one. Except for winter. I am not a fan of winter here in southwestern PA. Winter here is so dreary...gray sky, gray trees, gray ground, gray snow (after a few days it's pretty dirty), and everything gets covered with salt residue and is dull looking. It's just...blah.


12. Name five things that make you happy about today.
  It's the start of a 3-day work week to be followed by a 5-day weekend, I'm continuing with the Christmas decorating, I don't have anywhere to go, the football team of the school district I drive for won their district championship Saturday night, there will be a big pot of homemade soup simmering on the stove this afternoon.


13. How has the celebration of Thanksgiving today changed from when you were little?  Mainly, it's the size of the celebration. During my childhood the whole family, sometimes both sides (Mom's and Dad's), got together. We'd have 15, 20, or more siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins for dinner. Now everyone has either passed away or moved from the area. We only have us, my mom and stepdad, and our daughter's family (and them only for a while as they have to split the day with her husband's family). Well, that and the fact that we actually used to take time to focus on the actual holiday not on the Christmas shopping or football.


14. If you could share Thanksgiving dinner today with one person in history who would it be? Why? (Note: it can be a relative)  Only one? I'd love to have my dad, my grandparents, and my aunt and uncle back for a day. If I must choose one of those, then it would be my grandmother. She and I had a very special relationship.


15. What is one wish you have for the next generation as they begin to establish their own Thanksgiving traditions.
  That they would focus on the people around the table because time passes quickly and all too soon those people are gone.


Wow, this one was very reflective and really made me think about times past.  It was good to remember those days, but it kind of made me sad thinking about how much has changed.  



13 comments:

  1. #1 is so well said! :)

    And I agree, this meme was a little melancholy.

    One of my colleagues is an Alden from the Mayflower Aldens!

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    1. Does your colleague belong to the Alden Kindred? I have a goal of belonging, but I have one ancestor...the one that moved from Mass. to PA and I have to prove his birth to the generation before him. So many branches are already researched and you can use that, but there is a deadend with this guy. I know where he is buried and all that, but can't find a record of his birth. I've even called a couple of towns up there asking and they made some inquiries for me and came up with nothing.

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  2. I'm also thankful that we have freedom of speech guaranteed by a strong constitution. Huzzah! Also, your memorable thanksgiving just grabs my imagination. Wow! Hogs is right! lol
    I'm proud of my ancestors, too.

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    1. Well, we do up to a point. I got an explanation from a lawyer who worked in D.C. for many years and then in private practice. His specialty calls for him to really know constitutional law. And he explained something that I didn't know...

      "It prevents the GOVERNMENT from criminalizing speech. That’s it. It doesn’t even stop the government from limiting that speech or where it may be spoken, and it has no application whatsoever to private employers."

      This came up in a discussion about the whole NFL/kneelers thing. Because the teams are owned privately, said owners can fire the kneelers, forbid them to do it on company time, etc. It's no different than my employer telling us not o express opinions on school district matters on social media or to the press.

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  3. It made me a little sad too, Stacy. I like your answer, especially, to #7 about your ancestors...WOW! I agree with you about the courage and convictions of those who came here first. Wow again!

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    1. Thanks, Terri. I don't even meet many people these days who know who John and Priscilla are.

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  4. Interesting that you think about the Pilgrims and I thought of the Indians! LOL. And yeah, I guess it's a little melancholy. Sadly, it goes with getting older. I feel very melancholic around the holidays and my favorite day is January 2, when everything is over for the year!

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    1. I think of the Natives, too. I've read a lot of histories about that time and I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. There are examples of someone acting badly on both sides. One of the worst was a Native...I can't for the life of me remember his name right now...he played both sides against each other. He was all about getting the best deal for himself.

      I do a little better these days with the holidays, but man, the first year our Christmas traditions went out the window I didn't take it very well and was an emotional mess.

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  5. If you're wondering where your comment on my Sunday Stealing is, it's not posted because it was so condescending. I never needed a constitutional lawyer to explain the legal ramifications of free speech to me because I managed to stay awake in sixth grade. If you noticed, it was the GQ cover of Colin Kapernick that I posted. GQ doesn't need the President's permission to honor Kapernick. I don't need anyone's permission to admire a young man who has faced incredible pressure to back down on his beliefs, and hasn't.

    You are always welcome to comment on my blog, but you are not welcome to lecture me. I am not uninformed.

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    1. I wasn't meaning to lecture you, Gal. I was explaining to myself as much as anyone. The finer points of the constitution is not something that was ever taught in my schools. I thought and I may be wrong, but I think my teachers probably did, too, that the first amendment covered free speech in all sectors. I just thought it was interesting to hear what a constitutional attorney had to say about it. I have no problem with Kapernick or the others speaking their minds, taking a knee, standing or whatever. I love that we can all have our views and opinions in this country. My only problem with the whole thing has been the opinion that the team owners as private employers have no right to say the players should not do it on the time they are paying them for.

      I don't for a minute think you are uninformed and I'm really sorry you thought I did. I've always thought you to be a well-educated and interesting woman.

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  6. The holiday season has never been a good time for me. It has been better as an adult, especially after I stopped having contact with my own family, but even that is bittersweet. I cry at Folger's commercials because that kind of love is something I will never know. No one in my family cared if I came home or not.

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  7. That "Thanksgiving past"? .. unbelievable! I'm glad to hear y'all can laugh about it today. Same thing happened to us when we were late to Easter brunch (because we'd gone to church). Not even an offer of a Coca-Cola.

    When family and friends have gone before - coupled with society's expectations - it's easy to fall into a bit of a funk.

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  8. I'm so with you about winter and the gray ... everything. HATE it!!! Not looking forward to it now that we're back in the land of where winter happens. But anyway. Lots of great reflection in your answers & I enjoyed reading them. :)

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