THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS

Traditionally, Thanksgiving was always celebrated with my large extended family. Although the last of my grandmother's generation was laid to rest more than 20 years ago, my mother and her cousins kept the family traditions alive until recently.

Fond memories of a relative's home redolent with the roasting turkey lurk in the back of my mind. The white linen table cloth set with the good china, crystal, and silver. The kitchen abuzz with the cousins making gravy, mashing potatoes, and carving turkey. The various dishes contributed by the family members attending the feast. In the days when I was in elementary school, there was an adult table and a kids table. It was a long wait for food because serving dishes were first past to the adults and then to the kids. Later, when my grandmother's generation passed the hosting down to my mother's generation, the meal was served buffet-style. Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings included turkey, at least one kind of stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, squash puff, creamed onions, corn, a jello salad, some type of dinner rolls, and finished up with pumpkin pie.

This year, however, new traditions have been created. Dinner was still at my mother's, but it was not the large extended family. Instead, we feasted with my oldest son and his girlfriend and her two boys, my youngest son, and my husband: in all we were only a total of eight - a far cry from the 25 to 30 family members that gathered when I was a kid. Instead of a golden bird decorating the table, a beef roast with gravy and cheesy overnight potatoes filled the bill of fare.

But, although some things have changed, I am thankful that I have raised two descent boys, that I have a loving, wonderful husband, that my mother is still a vibrant lady, and that I have a job, a roof over my head, and food in my fridge.

Signs of Autumn

Until recently, I thought that autumn was playing hide and seek with me. It would peek out from under the blanket of heat and humidity that engulfed me at work and at home, and then run and hide. But it can't play for long. I think summer has finally tagged autumn and autumn is now it, running after winter to tag it.

The sun has been setting earlier and earlier and the clouds have lost their fluffy summer coats.

Last weekend I did a favor for hubby that had me driving south on the highway. The drive down was uneventful, but when I took the exit back home, the bright crimson leaves of the sumac danced and glistened in the sun.

My grass, which hasn't been mowed in 4 weeks, is finally in need of its last clipping.

Grocery stores and department stores have brightly colored displays of mums as well as Halloween decorations.

This weekend, my neighbors sealed the idea that this summer season has disappeared. The warm blue summer cover to their pool lay drying on the grass and now the dark winter cover has been secured with milk jugs to the pool.

Good-bye summer. I wish you could have lingered longer, but I am grateful to autumn's cool, dry breezes and the fabulous colors that have burst forth from the trees and the flowers.