Tradition

             Family Traditions . . . interesting concept.  Do they continue today?  Yes and no.

When I was growing up, it was traditional for us to spend Thanksgiving Day with my mom’s family.  It was a large family – she had 8 siblings and several of them had large families.  Location changed every year, alternating between Washington and Oregon.  It was the host family’s responsibility to obtain a place for us to hold the big dinner, usually a community or Grange hall.

We would arrive, bring in whatever food items we were responsible for.  There would be turkey and ham, potatoes (both sweet and mashed), gravy, vegetables (I don’t ever recall there being a green bean casserole!), salads, and lots of desserts (mainly pies).

Kids would play outside (for some reason it was usually nice) but if it wasn’t, then we would be in the hall.  The older boys would play with a ball, I think the younger boys tried to join in.  Us girls would congregate somewhere and visit.

Sometimes, somebody would bring a film projector and show home movies from past events.  We would all gather together and eat.  Afterwards, there would be games then gathering up the leftovers and heading back home.

        This ended after the grandparents had passed away.  Although, it was replaced by the annual family camping trip in July.  Actually, I think we had the family camping trip as well as the Thanksgiving dinner for several years.  Now, it is just the camping trip.  A destination was decided and everybody showed up when they could.  Most of the time, when I was growing up, it was somewhere in Washington State.  The men would go
fishing or hiking into a lake to fish.  Sometimes, us kids would join in.  However, in the past few years, it has been in Oregon at the same location.  I haven’t been able to attend as it
conflicts with my husband’s family reunion.  There’s usually just one day (a Saturday) that is set aside for the annual potluck mid-day meal.  For those who live close, this made it a day trip for them.   There would be games to play – lawn games or cribbage tournaments.  Mainly visiting and the group photo.  The younger generation is now responsible for organizing this.

        That’s mom’s side.  Dad’s side was Christmas.  Much

smaller family as Dad had only one sibling and she had no children.  We would gather in the early afternoon, have a big meal (can’t remember if it was turkey or ham) with all the trimmings.  When I was working, we would switch the time based on which schedule I was working (morning shift vs afternoon shift).  After eating, we would open our gifts to each other.  Now, it’s my family as a whole and we have Christmas breakfast then the kids open their gifts.  Adults no longer exchange gifts. BTW, I still have that doll bed shown in the picture.  It was made by my grandfather.