Baby Love Letters

Featuring a question each Friday encouraging you to write for your children, Baby Love Letters is a unique blog. The challenge is to take 15 minutes every week to write a letter to your child/ren about a specific topic. The goal is to leave something for your children to use to get to know you, your thoughts and your hopes and dreams for them. I think it's a fantastic idea, and at the very least it will give me topics to blog about. 

What is your favorite Thanksgiving Tradition

I don't really remember Thanksgiving as a child, it wasn't a huge deal in our family.  - the first Thanksgiving I do remember was late in high school, I think it was my junior year. My parents thought that instead of having a delicious, traditional turkey dinner; we would have porkchops. Porkchops. On Thanksgiving. To my teenage self this was the most horrible thing in the entire world. I threw a huge tantrum with screaming and crying and hysterics all around. Finally, I climbed into the bathtub and refused to come out until they agreed to serve turkey. After about a half hour of hiding out, my dad turned the cold water on, soaking me, and giving in - deciding we could have turkey. But only if I made it. (I did). 

Another mini-tradition involved my high school boyfriend. Each year (2) that we dated, he came over with a pie after dinner. We broke up a few months before Thanksgiving my freshman year of college, and he and my parents made plans for him to [still] come over that Thanksgiving, despite the fact that we were no longer together. I told my parents I wasn't comfortable with this , but they invited him anyways. This ruined our Thanksgiving tradition, as I chose not to come home and celebrate with them if he was going to be there. 

For the next couple of years, I went where I could get invited. One year to my grandparents and one year to a friend's home. My third year at Winona, I met Mike. We started dating a month or so before Thanksgiving, and when he found that my plans that year were to get eat grocery store chicken and potatoes - he wouldn't hear of it. He asked if I would join his family, and I did. 

The food was fantastic, and I felt at home with his family instantly. Their simple tradition, dinner and games, was perfect. It was nothing like I remembered, nothing like my family's Thanksgiving, it was wonderful. They even continued their tradition through the weekend. They would go to see a movie, pick out a Christmas tree and decorate it together. That year I was invited to join all of these activities, and couldn't imagine ever spending Thanksgiving any other way. I haven't since.