Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving






Happy return of the frog. I am happier when I see parade balloons that come out of pop culture, children's books or even tv shows over the commercial balloons like the energizer bunny. It's hard to listen to the NBC announcers read commercials for these floats. The parade route has changed this year to accommodate what I read is a "no cars on Broadway" rule. I don't fully understand this, except for Herald Square and the hardscaped bicycle lane down Broadway. If this is permanent, the view of Kermit through these buildings is a view of the past.

My wife and brother in law have left for the parade. I stayed behind to get some things together for the trip to mom's. I'm not hungry for the mad rush of food today, but it's nice to see the family together. My wife did make cranberry sauce, the kind I did not grow up with, and I like it very much.

Thanksgiving was the biggest holiday when I was a kid, and my favorite. We would have 25 to thirty people over, beginning around 12 noon. My grandfather Di Maio would come early with the huge (9 inches tall) lasagna, sauce would be simmering on the stove, and pasta pot was up for my uncle Jimmy's need for that too. We'd eat lasagna around 1pm and then the turkey and gaunza around 7:30 pm. It was a 10 hour family affair with lots of cousins, uncles, and aunts.

The family doesn't get together these days quite the way they did then when my grandparents were alive or before my parent's divorce, and me or my siblings didn't have kids so our Thanksgiving crowd is quite a bit smaller. But we do the best we can and are glad we still get together, and sometimes actually have some fun. Hope you do too.






1 comment:

If I do not respond to your comment right away, it is only because I am busy pulling out buckthorn, creeping charlie, and garlic mustard...