Every family in the US, has their own holiday traditions, regarding our annual Thanksgiving day feast. In the US, Thanksgiving is often linked with Christmas--much in the same way Boxing Day is linked to Christmas, in Canada, the UK and other parts of the world.

Thanksgiving is America's second-most important holiday. It doesn't really go back to pilgrim times though--it's a fairly "new" holiday, that came about in the 19th century. It's a day just like the name says: a day for giving thanks for the blessings of the year that's gone by, and day to be with family and friends, and, basically, a day to relax and stuff yer face...well, for those of us fortunate to have the day off, in the US, many resturant workers, as well some shop clerks and convenient store clerks, hospital and emergency staff, don't have that option. So, I give thanks to them, for taking their holiday to serve us, and I give thanks to my lovely, lovely friends, who I've been so blessed with, over the past few years. I give thanks to my cats, for loving me. I give thanks for Russell T. Davies and his fellow producers, the staff and crew at BBC Wales and David Tennant, for making Dr Who and bringing such joy into my life again...even if only for 40 minutes or so. I give thanks that I have a roof over my head, and food to eat. I give thanks for still having at least some of my possessions. And, I give thanks for having a Christmas tree again, it's something I've missed sorely, even tho' I've not got much reason to celebrate the holiday, any longer..it does cheer up the room.

Anyway, growing up, mum used to put on the usual feast every year--tho' sometimes it would vary. One year when I was in high school, a class mate hooked me up to a relative of theirs, who sold pheasants. They sold mum a nice plump frozen pheasant, all ready to be roasted, and gave us a discount, as well...and so one year we had pheasant instead of turkey--and it was delicious! What a treat that was...over here, pheasant isn't sold in supermarkets or butchers, it's very difficult to find, and usually very expensive.

Usually though, mum made the traditional turkey. But, never Butterball. (the most popular brand of turkey over here) This will sound silly, but mum had a bad experience with a Butterball turkey once, and swore off them forever. One year, she forget to take the bird out of the freezer (very much like moi did with her chicken yesterday), and spent about 8 hours running and pourting hot water over it, to get it to thaw enough for her to stuff it.

Our day began with mum getting the turkey ready to go in the oven. Then, we all sat down to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, on tele. After, it was an afternoon of chips (crisps) and dip, cheese and crackers and other snacks, and watching old films on television--in later years, it was the original Star Wars trilogy, but when I was growing up, it was movies like Wizard of Oz and It's a Wonderful Life, and such. Then dinner. Our meal consisted of sitting down, at the kitchen table, having some shirmp cocktail (except me, I didn't like it)--this was simply fresh shirmp, sold packed inside a hot tomatoey cocktail sauce, seasoned with horseraddish---I was given a small glass of orange juice each year, instead.

After we said grace...for some reason a task that usually fell to me--and after mum admonished dad to stop picking the meat off the turkey--we'd dive in.

Our menu traditionally was:

Roast turkey stuffed with homemade bread dressing made with Bell's poultry seasoning, hot rolls with butter, tinned green beans or peas & carrots (later replaced by broccolli with cheese sauce), those little creamed onions, freshed mashed potatoes with giblet gravy, and cranberry sauce (jelly).

Desert varied every year, but traditionally we had pumpkin or apple pie with either ice cream or whipped cream, but sometimes we might have an ice cream cake, or hot fudge sundaes.

We didn't have wine on Thanksgiving, but all drank cold milk, instead.

It was one of the few times we used tablecloths and centerpiece decorations in our house, during the year...my biggest memory is the smell of roasting turkey, and the constant gabble of the tv in the background. Mum had got this little candle, that looked just like a tom turkey, that she lit every year...I think we had that for about 5 or 6 years, until it finally gave out...otherwise we used just plain old candles...again, about the only time of year we ever ate by candlelight.

Then, dad watched the news, and we sat around the televison, watching Gone With the Wind or whatever special film they were showing (dad rarely watched football at home, mostly he just stayed in bed and napped the day away, or went down to the village, to our volunteer firehouse's bar, to play some gin rummy with the guys, if he was so inclinded--another thing for us girls to thank God for)

What--if you had one--was your family's TG tradition?