Up & Coming Weekly

November 24, 2009

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/4786

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 4 of 35

NOVEMBER 25 - DECEMBER 1, 2009 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM MARGARET DICKSON, State Representative and Contributing Writer COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 or call 919-733-5776 or email MARGARETD@NCLEG.NET Thanksgiving 2009: A Restful Holiday by MARGARET DICKSON Thanksgiving is a wonderful restful holiday for the Dicksons. I see on television that Thanksgiving is the most travelled holiday of the year with mobbed airports to prove it. Our family, however, is mostly in North Carolina — those who are not are blessedly within driving distance. It is also a holiday that revolves around family, friends and food, without the glitz of other holidays and without the tradition of shopping for, wrapping up and giving presents. It is a relaxing time for just being together, one of the few opportunities for the Dicksons' extended group and for many other American families busy with the routines of daily living. Our tradition of nearly three decades is to gather at the home of a cousin in Chapel Hill. The first Thanksgiving I remember at my cousin's home, there was one child, her 4-year-old daughter, and I was expecting my first child. Both of those "babies" will be there as usual this Thanksgiving. My cousin's daughter and her husband are expecting their first child, and my son will arrive with his bride of last year. Our first few Chapel Hill Thanksgivings took place in their first house, which burned to the ground more than 20 years ago after their Christmas tree caught fire when they were not home. My cousin, who is definitely a glass-half- full person and who maintained her good spirits during her family's ordeal, called me in tears one night during that tough time. They were living temporarily in a house lent by friends, and she had just stepped out of the shower only to realize all her underwear had burned in the fire. We celebrated the next Thanksgiving in their rental house sitting on their rental furniture. We may even have had rented dishes. Life moves on though, and ever since then we have gathered in the home they built to replace the one left in ashes. It is spacious, with a deck overlooking a lake. Most Thanksgivings have been warm enough for some, though maybe only the heartiest among us, to sit on the deck and enjoy dinner al fresco. In the early years, daddies took children for canoe rides while dinner was being readied, but more recently those children have been paddling younger ones around and sometimes even their own parents. My cousin, in addition to her sunny outlook, is welcoming and generous, which means we never know who might show up for Thanksgiving. There have been many different friends and erstwhile romantic interests whom lots of us have brought for all sorts of reasons, members of her husband's family from Belgium, members of my family from Austria, an entire Nigerian family whom no one has seen since, and several years ago a man in full black leather motorcycle gear. I just found out from my cousin that he was the boyfriend of one of her acquaintances, although the acquaintance herself was nowhere to be seen. The cast of characters is different every year, with several family members visiting children and grandchildren in other places this Thanksgiving, but I know they will return another year and that there will also be new and interesting faces and stories. My son and his bride are celebrating their first married Thanksgiving in Chapel Hill by bringing along some Indian friends, in keeping with my cousin's tradition of the more, the merrier. The food is always wonderful. My cousin's husband, the Belgian, is a gifted cook, and he bakes a huge turkey and stuffs it with his own apple and walnut dressing. They also provide rice, and the rest of us fill out the meal. My daughter and I will devote the day before to preparation and cooking — vegetables, several pies, perhaps an appetizer, and our traditional ice cream turkey, loved by all, available at a local ice cream shop and hauled to Chapel Hill in an insulated bag. There will be sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes, green vegetables because mothers insist, breads and whatever surprises people decide to bring or to try out on those assembled. I am hoping for scalloped oysters, but we do have several who are wildly allergic to them. There will be hugs, the occasional tiff, exchanges of family news and photos, and one or two of us will grab a quick nap before heading away from my cousin's house and another year of our Thanksgiving tradition. I look forward to our Thanksgiving, not because it is glamorous or special, but because it is not. It, like millions of Thanksgiving gatherings throughout our nation and where ever Americans might gather in far- flung corners of the world, is our family's evolving way of celebrating and enjoying being together if only for one day a year and for being part of this great nation. It is our reminder that even in these desperately trying times, we are grateful for so much.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Up & Coming Weekly - November 24, 2009