Memories of Thanksgiving

Two of my favorite holidays of all time are right around the corner! I love Thanksgiving and Christmas. For the past two years, my mom has cooked an enormous Thanksgiving feast for my dad’s side of the family. Last year was incredible! My sister and I helped my mom prepare the Thanksgiving supper. When I was a lot younger, my family had the tradition every other year of driving all the way to New Jersey to visit my mom’s family. I always enjoyed going to New Jersey for Thanksgiving because I loved spending time with my grandmother. I have always called her “Nana.” Today, Nana is 93 years old and is still going strong. Nana usually would cook the Thanksgiving meal. I remember helping make the mashed potatoes and cumber salad. It is not customary for my mom’s side of the family to eat casseroles like green bean, sweet potato, broccoli, or macaroni and cheese. Everything prepared is made fresh that day.

Customs like this one are different from how my dad’s side of the family prepares their Thanksgiving meals. My grandmother (Dad’s mom) is crazy about casseroles. I could not believe it when she told me that she begins preparing them a few days in advance. My Grandma’s two specialties are her sweet potato casserole and macaroni casserole. The sweet potato casserole has brown sugar and pecans on the top of it. It is so delicious!

Over the years, my mom, my dad, my sister, and I would alternate attending Nana’s Thanksgiving dinner in Trenton, New Jersey, Grandma’s Thanksgiving dinner in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and my mom’s Thanksgiving dinner in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. My favorite Thanksgiving meal is of course the one prepared by my mom because she takes a little bit of both flavors and prepares a meal with Northern and Southern flare!