Around this time of year it becomes very evident of how important food is in my life. It's during the holiday season that I have the most memorable moments in my life. And the one thing that brought my family together was food!
No matter what happens throughout the year, good events like weddings, births, and christenings or bad events like deaths, fights, and illness, we always can use the holiday dinner table to realize how blessed we really are.
Growing up my grandparents, Nanny & Granddaddy (my dad's parents), would host Thanksgiving dinner at their house. We would wake up early go over to their house and the smells would just blow you away. Literally...Nanny would be making chitterlings and those things smell like athlete's foot that's rolled around in poo all day. Well in a less descriptive way...they smell pretty bad! But besides that you would also smell the delicious baked goods that were now lining the table.
Nanny would sit on a high chair in the kitchen and make the most delicious lemon cake you have ever tasted. She made everything from scratch including the icing. This cake would be three-layers of pure lemon lusciousness. YYYYYUUUUUMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Granddaddy would make the most moist and light gingerbread. OOOOO-MMMMM-GGGGG. I DIE! This gingerbread would make a gingerbread man eat himself! That's how good it was.
And the desserts would just keep coming: apple pies, sweet potatoe pies, coconut cake, pound cake, german chocolate cake, etc. And the food was never ending: turkey, ham, corn, collard greens, dressing, cranberry sauce, macaroni & cheese and more!
While the food was being prepared we all would have had 15 arguments, including Nanny screaming at all of us for talking loud and running through the house. She felt like loud noises would make her cakes fall. I don't know if that's true but we didn't want to find out. My dad and aunt would start arguing about who was being more righteous. And who could talk the loudest. Me and my cousins would be waiting to cut the cakes and looking at the adults like they had lost their minds.
But when it was time to eat...everyone forgot the arguments of the day and knew that we were truly blessed to have each other. We could talk about how delicious the food was and how loud everyone was going to be snoring when they were finally finished eating.
The good thing about the food was that it made us forget our personal problems and our issues with each other and just celebrate good food and having family in our lives. No one can drive you crazy like the people you love. No one can make you more upset than the people who know every button to push because they are always there. No one will fight harder for you than your family. No one will drop everything for you like your family. Me and my family aren't perfect and that's what the rest of the year exposes but the holidays show us that we love each other no matter what and at that dinner table it is all laughs and smiles.
During this time of year, take a moment to forget the problems from the rest of the year and let food bring you and your family together. Everyone has to eat and if the food is good everyone forgets about the argument you had in June. Laugh about old times and smile about the memories being made presently.
I will be with my family on Thanksgiving. I hope you will be with yours. The people that have left us (my Nanny & Granddaddy, and Granny & Papa) will be missed but they will be smiling down on us from heaven because although we still argue throughout the year, we continue to have our holiday dinners and celebrate being a family.
Have a great Thanksgiving! And remember even though they are family they don't play with my food!
K
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