Thanksgiving Traditions
Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday! It just takes a trip to the grocery store to get ready and then you can enjoy cooking with the family, making table decorations together, and enjoying each other's company. It is so Mom-friendly--all over in one day and then you get leftovers so you don't have to cook for awhile! Most of all, Thanksgiving reminds us of our heritage of freedom and it helps us take time to stop and think about our abundance. I love Thanksgiving!
We keep some Thanksgiving traditions in our family that I thought I'd share.
A few weeks before Thanksgiving, we tape a big long strip of blank butcher paper from the top of a door all the way to the floor and write "I'm Thankful For. . . " on the top and leave colored markers nearby. Everyone who comes in can add to it, and as the month progresses, it becomes covered with words, drawings, randomly added here and there. Each day it seems to get fuller. We roll them up and save them, because they are so much fun to look at on future Thanksgivings.
Along the same idea, this year we cut out colorful construction paper leaves and put them in a basket with a marker pen. As family members or guests think of something they are grateful for, they can choose a leaf from the basket, write the object of their gratitude on the leaf and "hang" it on a length of yarn. (Just bend the stem end of the leaf over the yarn line and tape.) It is pretty to look at, and wonderful to count our blessings!
Our son Mark grew prize winning pumpkins during his boyhood, but he is not fond of pumpkin pie! So, my daughters and I decided to invent a pumpkin dessert he would enjoy. Try our Pumpkin Pike (pike= our invented word meaning a combination of pie and cake). It is moist and very delicious, plus healthy using whole wheat flour and honey.
Pumpkin Pike
1 cup honey
1/2 cup butter
4 eggs
1 (15 oz.) can cooked pumpkin (or 2 cups home cooked pumpkin, drained well)
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
1 cup chocolate or carob chips (or raisins)
Cream butter and honey. Add eggs and pumpkin and mix well. Gently stir in flour, baking powder and soda. Pour into a 9 x 13" baking dish. Sprinkle nuts and chips or raisins on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve warm. May top with whipping cream or ice cream. Delicious!
My favorite tradition, though, is remembering the 5 kernels of corn. During that first starving winter of the Pilgrims, they lived all winter and spring on a paltry ration of five kernels of Indian corn. So, on Thanksgiving, we put five kernels of corn (sweet corn) on each plate and have one of our children recite the long poem, "Five Kernels of Corn" by Hezekiah Butterworth and then we eat the corn kernels, before we have the blessing on the food. Emily just memorized it. She is 15 and she will recite it this year. It always makes me cry and feel very grateful for our forebearers and for our own overflowing abundance!
Wishing you a very meaningful Thanksgiving celebration!
Diane Hopkins
