Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. 

All my life there are two things that that day meant. Turkey and Grandma's house.

   The turkey wasn't just about eating. It was about the week before the holiday. The catching, butchering, and selling. As a child it involved butchering all day Monday, bagging Tuesday morning, and selling till late Wednesday. The business has grown and now it involves four days of butchering and bagging, and two full days of selling. It's an intense week. Long hours on our feet. Tedious pulling of pin feathers. Hot water in the scalder. Freezing water in the chill tubs. Blood, feathers, and I will refrain from naming the rest. It's a week of give and take. Working together. Joking. Laughing ourselves sick after being up way too long. Making priceless memories. The family is all involved and then we hire extra help for the actual butchering. Many of them come back every year to help, mainly because we are so entertaining! We do an average of 800 turkeys, some for local businesses to give to their employees, some for the individual buyer who likes good, super fresh turkey.
  This year due to everything else we had going on we didn't help with the selling at all. And although we didn't really have time, we made it to all four days of butchering. The next three years they will have to figure it out without us! I will sit in Africa and wish I had turkeys to butcher! My sis suggested I raise one and butcher it there. After all I should know how!    
                                   
  My Grandma was sure my mom would never get a decent meal made for Thanksgiving day after all that butchering, so for as long as I can remember, she had the whole family for dinner. And then we ate leftovers for supper yet. I remember all squeezing around the kitchen table. Then as the family grew the older cousins had their own table in the laundry. Then I graduated to the table in the laundry! Eventually we moved to the garage and set up tables and chairs there. Grandpa passed away in 2009 but the tradition continued. Three years ago, grandma admitted that at 95 years old, it was just too much having her house so full for the day. The Thanksgiving dinner got moved to my parents garage. 
Today we had our first Thanksgiving dinner without Grandma. She passed away this summer after living 98 years. She lived life to the fullest all 98 of those years. Living alone and doing all her own things. She had a stroke one day and passed away peacefully the next.Today we gathered around tables that held what's left of her legacy. There was an auction for the house and household things the beginning of this month. What was left was personal items, doilies she crocheted, dresser scarves she embroidered, aprons from long ago, picture books, scrapbooks, the bill of sale from her first car, their Bibles.   
  But as I looked around at my family. As we talked about what grandma would have said. As we looked through pictures and reminisced, I was keenly aware of being thankful this Thanksgiving Day. Not that grandma was missing, certainly not! But for what she left us. A Godly heritage. A family that enjoys being together. Many good memories of days gone by.  
   And then I ask myself, what will my family look like 60 years from now? Will my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren gather and reminisce? I can't imagine living to the ripe old age of 98, but you never know. This Thanksgiving, I have a challenge for myself, what will my descendants carry on after I have gone? What can I do today, that will make a difference in the lives of those that have a family gathering in 60 years from now?