Traditions ~

 

 

Thanksgiving dinner is at Rose Arbors, everyone will be here: my children and grandchildren.  Last Thanksgiving my oldest grandson Samuel was away with the marines, but this year he is home, back at college and will be joining us ~ what a joy it will be to see them all together gathered around the table to celebrate this feast of thankfulness and plently.

 

 

 

As I began to prepare the food today I thought of the iconic dishes we will be eating and how this is a dinner that doesn't allow for many diviations. Oh sure, it is fun to try a new recipe or two but the menu largely remains the same. And one of those dishes that would be missed is the very trite, but really yummy Green Bean Casserole. The first time I ever ate it was at my then future mother-in-law's house, the remarable Lola Philp: cook extrodinaire, artist, seamstress, with inexhaustible enery and a zest for living.  Many of these traits were passed on to her son who became my wonderful husband and partner in life. Since then, I cannot remember a Thanksgiving dinner without this dish, and I have always served it in a pyrex cassorole given to me one Christmas by the self same mother-in-law. 

 

As I gathered together the ingrediants, it came to me that food is much more than simple nourishment but also envokes memories of the people we sit down to eat with, past and present and how these simple acts make up the traditions that bind us and enrich our lives.

 

 

So I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving spent with family and friends, emjoying old traditions and creating new ones.

 

Bon Appetite!