A Family Portrait

Thanksgiving is by far the biggest holiday in my family. I have a big family made up of lots of very … unique people.  Thanksgiving ideal in every way for us:  it’s after the elections are over.  It is not associated with any particular religion.  And most of the occasion consists of stuffing one’s face and watching football, which doesn’t leave much rom for chitchat.  Besides it reminds us all to be thankful that this kind of thing only happens once a year.

            This year we’re hosting thanksgiving.  We shift every year. At my grandma’s it’s homie with all the classics and everyone’s specialty: angel biscuits, homemade dressing or in the case of my mother a Sarah lee pie.  My aunt always picks a theme the biggest hit was the year we roasted the turkey on a spit.  Everything is always delicious though with the possible exception of the salsa stuffing.  When cousin Jodi hosts it’s incredibly tacky complete with hand “turkeys” and the same grimy cornucopia centerpiece.

            But when we host thanksgiving it’s always a disaster.  In fact we’ve been excluded from the turkey circuit ever since the year mom thought you had to cook the turkey for 35 minutes instead of 3.5 hours or maybe it was the year that she forgot to let it defrost. Everything looked great and we thought she might have succeeded but then uncle Harry tried to carve it… This year we’re going to do it right. We have to. My mother is determined that Thanksgiving will be perfect.   We’ve bought just the right tablecloth and I’ve set up everything.  I’ve made schedule, all my mother has to do is preheat the oven. 

            When I wake up at 7 and things looks promising.  The oven’s little red light is on my dad is still asleep which means he isn’t demanding counter space, and mother is just pouring a tablespoon of salt into the cranberry sauce.  Wait a second…. I reach over just in time to hand her the sugar, dumping the salt down the sink.  Oh well, she’ll get it eventually right? I have a jar of the stuff in the pantry… just in case.  I put the turkey in the oven and set the timer.  Nice to see things go according to plan. 

My aunt’s the first to show up.  Hi Judy! My mom says hugging her.  Aww that’s sweet of you to bring a casserole but really got everything covered.  Next my grandmother arrives a plate of biscuits in hand.  Slowly everyone starts trickling in they all seem to have brought something.  Finally the last guest arrives: my daft great aunt Lillian carrying a Safeway chicken.  She says to my mother “Just in case you never know with your cooking.”  She then winks and my Mother turns and stares at her dumbstruck.   You all panned this didn’t you!!  You didn’t think I could pull it off.  Well! How nice, not even you guys thought I could do it.  That’s not fair you asked me to host this.  “I’m guessing this the wrong time to admit I redoing my kitchen?” says aunt Judy.  “Well!! I’m going to show you all wrong” she says.  I’m going to go get the turkey. The atmosphere is frozen as we wait.  When suddenly, beep beep beep the smoke detector goes off we all rush into the kitchen to find my mother staring at a blackened turkey.  “How is that possible?”  I say.  “I set the timer!!”  Aunt Lillian chimes in next; completely oblivious to the awkward silence “Must be an interesting recipe that uses the broiler.” She says.  At this point my mother bursts into tears distraught. Everyone crowds around giving her a hug.  2 minutes later my aunt Judy appears, a fresh turkey in hand, “ta-da” she says.  My mother, looking pacified, gives a watery smile.  “Let’s eat” she says. Everyone goes to sit down except me. I rush the camera Hey, at least the table still looks great.  “Smile” I say.  Even my mother manages a grin and I capture the moment.   While looking at the picture I can see the cousins goofing off and my uncle already opening the bottle of wine.  It’s then that I realize why it is that we’re thankful for family.  It’s not because they’re un-judgmental or because they’re scintillating conversationalists.  It’s because the know our flaws and they love us anyway.    

Author's Note

Any thoughts greatly appreciated