Thanks(Giving)

One of my favorite holidays growing up (besides Christmas) was Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving in my mind was Christmas without the presents and I mean that in the best way.  You see, I grew up in a large, dual-parented family in the small town of Groton, CT.   I was one of 7 children and the ‘baby girl.’

My father was in the U.S. Navy and my mother was a housewife (today she would be called a ‘stay at home mom’).

Here’s a picture of my  parents when they first met.  My mother Jean was 17 and my father Jonie B. was 19.

In my humble opinion, holidays were and are so much more fun when you can share them with your parents and siblings and the bigger your family, the better.  I was 6 years old in this picture of me and my six siblings, I’m the second one in from the right.

My mother was the ultimate multi-tasker and as such super organized so the bigger holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) afforded her the opportunity to show off her skills.

She would take one or more of us with her to the grocery store to buy the turkey, the trimmings and the holiday themed tablecloth, plates, cups, cutlery and paper machete turkey.

Between making sure that the house was spick and span clean as well as decorated, each and everyone’s clothes washed and folded, and the food prepped and ready, she was also genius at balancing our lives to ensure that we were where we needed to be at any given time.

I had no cooking skills whatsoever so I marveled at how my mother could wash, stuff and prepare the turkey, bake multiple pies with homemade (not store-bought) crusts and then cook a ton of side dishes with ease.

On the big day, the food was blessed and then we would go around the dinner table and share what we were most thankful for that particular year.  This would usually elicit misty eyes…

Then my father, Jonie B., would do the honors by carving the turkey.  If he was out to sea during the holiday, my older brother Michael would handle it.

The Thanksgiving menu was not light.  It usually consisted of an oversized turkey, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, giblets, sweet potatoes, baked macaroni and cheese, collard greens with ham bone, corn, mashed potatoes with gravy, string beans with fat back, hot dinner rolls, pumpkin pies, sweet potatoe pies, and apple cider to wash it all down with.

Huge mounds of food on serving plates would be passed around the table, laughter was heard throughout and we all knew that we would be eating leftovers for days!

Football was on TV all day long, Macy’s parade as well.  Good times.

Fast Forward to today:   with the holiday season quickly approaching, I sometimes catch myself getting caught up in a lot of the negativity of the world.  My solution a few weeks ago (inspired by my good church friend, Bobo) was to start a (daily) blessings jar to remind myself that I still have plenty to be thankful for.  It works like a charm (smile).

One of the first blessings that I wrote and put in my jar was how thankful I was (am) for my late mother so this blog post is written in loving memory of  Jean Anna Tinsley Hollis, gone but not forgotten…