It’s Saturday Night

Time for Some More Genealogy Fun

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

A)  We all need to document some of the special moments in our lives so we can recall them, or our descendants can learn more about us.  Today’s question is “What was your Thanksgiving Day like this year?”

My Thanksgiving Day can be summarized with 3 words.

• Cooking
• Travel
• Family

Like many of the cooks hosting Thanksgiving dinner, my day started early. However, I wasn’t in my kitchen at home, but in the kitchen at church. My local church hosts an annual Thanksgiving Dinner. Prior to covid, people were able to gather in the church basement and share the meal together. We also offered delivery to shut-ins and those working on Thanksgiving. When covid hit, we eliminated the dine-in option but provided the ability for people to pick up meals to take home. Delivery is still an option within the city limits.

While the turkey is cooked in advance and just re-heated on Thanksgiving day, the stuffing is prepared that morning. I typically work the ‘stuffing prep’ shift that begins between 6 and 6:30 am. Once we have the stuffing in the oven, the turkey is placed in the oven or in roasters and we start heating the corn. While the other two people on the early shift monitor the cooking and continue getting things ready for the next shift to prepare the mashed potatoes and gravy, I start cutting and packaging the pies. Since other help arrived early, we were able to get the pie and most of the jello salads packaged before I left around 10 am.

We served over 225 meals that day which is over 10% of the size of Seneca.

The second portion of my day started around noon when my husband and I travelled to Kansas City to spend the day with my brother’s family. The weather was fantastic and the traffic light making for an enjoyable trip.

The evening was spent with my brother and his wife, their daughters and son-in-law where we enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving meal prepared by my sister-in-law. (While baking pies and making jello salads on Tuesday, I made extra to take with us to KC.) During dessert, we were joined by my sister-in-law’s nephew and family.

While it was a tiring day, I enjoyed the time with both my church family and with my brother and his family.