Earl Giving Thanks for Thanksgivings

This is my 64th Thanksgiving, although for the 2 years I lived in Mexico, they passed unnoticed because the 4th Thursday in November is just another day. What I am giving thanks for here is all of the family, friends, and food that have marked this holiday for many of us. Thanksgiving is special because we come together with no expectations of gifts or doing anything but eat...and watch football, of course. but several stick-out in my memory:

• Thanksgiving, 1975. I had just met been on my first date with the woman that would become my fiancé and has been by my side for almost 42 years. She was many hours from her family and wouldn't be going home, so I invited her to join us. We were eating at my dad's new wife's parents house. I probably should have asked my step-mom in advance, but boy, had I fallen hard for this girl. Everything was fine with my step-grandparents and dinner was great. My dad had season tickets to the Utah Stars basketball team and they had a game on this Thanksgiving, but he gave his tickets to me to take my date. We got there, and it during the game they announced that the ABA (American Basketball Association) was folding, and that would be the last game the Stars would play.
• I'm not sure of the year here but my wife and I chose one year to eat out at a local restaurant called JB's It just wasn't the same. It was okay food, but not homemade by a long shot. Be ever so grateful for home cooked food.
• My first Thanksgiving working at a big-box retailer (Wal-Mart), where everyone was sad that we had to work and yet there they were, the reason we did. Anyway, They scheduled me to work a split shift, giving me only a 2-hour window. I could live with that if I didn't have to cook & prepare the TURKEY for the rest of the family. Later in my retail life, I worked overnight and missed all of the Black Friday on Thursday grind. After 10 p.m. there are almost no lines!
• This Thanksgiving...my first one off since 2008! I am able to take my time and cook like I have wanted to every year—and I am able to share it with everyone who wants, but especially my family. My daughter, the hostess, and her husband are in a new house and this is their first Thanksgiving there. Thanks for them and their hospitality.
  
  This is is also my first Thanksgiving since our mom passed. Thanksgiving was her favorite meal..stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce. We miss her very much and every time I cook or post here I think of her. She loved to eat and passed that love to all of us. We may not do it like what she did, but I hope we can put the lovin' in the oven like she did. I was fortunate enough to be able to cook for her right up until her passing, and she always wanted Thanksgiving, even when she could barely eat.

• My Eldest's generously offering her apartment for Thanksgivings. She has done this more than once and I realize it is a bit stressful and sometimes the logistics are tough, but we have always enjoyed them and the work she puts toward those Thanksgivings.
• My dear baby sister, who offered her place on many occasions for Thanksgiving. One I remember very vividly was when my youngest grandson volunteered to offer the blessing of the food. He had Heavenly Father bless "this feast". He had been listening in preschool, as they learned about the holiday. Some of the great memories at my sisters on Thanksgiving include the games we would play. My mom would make us all laugh so hard we almost lost our feast. I don't think she even knew why, and we loved that about her.
• My sweet sister who has spent much of her life in and around St. George, invited all of us to join her and her Hubby at her newly completed home near Zion National Park. We descended on her like she had never seen but boy did it make for a good time. The movie "Madagascar" played almost continuously and we even got to visit my dad's oldest brother and only surviving sibling. What a treat that whole weekend was.
• I also learned and interesting food fact one Thanksgiving at my in-laws...part of a turkey can cause food poisoning while the rest is fine! Fortunately, only adults were affected and no kids ate the bad turkey. (It wasn't cooked by me, either, thank goodness!)

TO BE CONTINUED