Thanksgiving memories

While eating Thanksgiving meal with my folks today my mind went back in time. So I was wondering if we could share some stories/memories of Thanksgiving Day from our past.

My Great Grandmother on my dads side of the family lived not too far from here. Every Thanksgiving  about 3 or 4 families would get together at our Great Grandmothers house for the day. Everybody brought some food , so we had quite a spread laid out. Plus it was nice to see my cousins again.

We always had Thanksgiving at our house when I was a kid.  Us kids would try and make the day go by faster by playing Monopoly and other board games that would take a lot of time to complete.  Of course all of the aromas coming from the kitchen were wonderful!

My best memories are as a kid going to my Grandparents house with cousins. I still miss them so much.
Also, when the girls were young and gathering with family. Time marches on.

Big family get togethers as a kid when we lived in Michigan. I can remember snow on Thanksgiving many times. Lots of cousins my age to play with. My grandparents lived up the street from us. We moved in 1980 so that was the end of that and many of the other relatives left Michigan as well so even if we stayed it would not have been the same. These days it is just my wife and two daughters with a relaxing day at home but I did talk to my folks, my son and brothers yesterday.

I remember doing a lot of large family get-together Thanksgivings as a youngster (they were always fun).  My dad had a cousin who was a great cook, so I was always happy when we did Thanksgiving with my dad's family.  I also remember that when my wife and I started having children we would split our thanksgivings with each set of grandparents.  Going to my parents one year, and her parents the others.  That was fun too (until both of our parents moved out of state).  After that we started having Thanksgiving at our house and would have my wife's sister's family over (her, her son, and husband).  But we quit doing that after a few years because of problems with my sister-in-law creating too much stress with me and my wife.
There is one Thanksgiving I do remember fondly.  My wife and I had gotten married only two weeks earlier and had left our home in Washington state to move to North Carolina.  We didn't have an apartment yet, we were living in a government owned hotel on the Army base and only had a microwave.  We spent our first Thanksgiving as a married couple eating at one of the only restaurant's in town that was open, IHOP.  It is a fun memory.