Sunday 13 October 2013

Today we celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving!

The last supper in 2005
As I prepared the turkey this morning, I thought of my late parents. They loved the rituals around such
observances. Mom had all her traditions that they had to follow! Rules, actually. There was Mom's way and the wrong way! By 2005 she'd had three surgeries for cancer, as well as radiation. Dad's brain tumour was to come back the following year, and Mom passed over in 2006.

This photo is the last Thanksgiving they were able to prepare a turkey. Since they lived so far away, or, more pointedly, we moved from Toronto to Ottawa in 1981, we would usually do the driving.

The 'cottage'
They loathed leaving home, their dog and cat, too. That said, my parents would visit us the odd time, making the long 5-hour drive from time-to-time, leaving their precious Long Lake home behind.

Dad was in charge of the turkey, mom the veggies. For 50 years, or so, they did this. Often my Nanny would cook and host the entire family. I only regret that I didn't learn much
about it from them.

Nanny - marvellous cook,
seamstress (1966-ish)
That said, I haven't had much call to cook a turkey. Certainly, not during my single parent years. Hubby doesn't like poultry, having had to do them in at the farm when he was a child. Poor man. More often than not, the kids were too far away to visit. Many of my friends tell me about kids being far away!

The thing about dealing with such issues is managing the traditions as best you can, or changing them up totally.

Since we moved back to the region, the kids are able to visit more often. It is a blessing.

Mom and Dad visited us in
North Gower in 1991
Due to a couple of reasons, I haven't been able to summon the energy to do stuffing. Two hospice clients, plus... As with many families, one must apportion one's energy and decided what is important.

Our local farmer only had 22 lb. turkeys. I should have declined and gone elsewhere for a smaller one. However, I love them and their service.

It fit into the bar fridge, and the pan –although the lid doesn't sit snugly! What a hoot.
Our two bar fridges require another post to explain them!
Last year's painted pumpkin was better!

This year's one will do!
Lots of local produce
Lots of local farmers 



10 comments:

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

I forgot about Canadian Thanksgiving. Every year I want to celebrate it in addition to the USA version. I found out last year that one branch of my Dad's family lived in Canada for a while and made a pretty good living by smuggling hogs to the USA across some lake on a wagon fitted with blades. (It is all very confusing to me.)

TexWisGirl said...

cute pumpkins! happy thanksgiving to you, jennifer!

Kay L. Davies said...

I love the photos of your parents, Jenn. Times like this make me miss my parents, even though they were gone every winter since I was in my mid-20s.
For many years, until I was almost 40, we still had our maternal grandparents, which was a blessing. We called our grandmother Nanny also, and she loved to cook. So did I, and my sister and sister-in-law.
Now Dick and I go out for Thanksgiving, and for Christmas dinner. He is Jewish, so he much prefers Thanksgiving to Christmas.
I love your photos of all the pumpkins. There were pumpkin farmers in BC, too, but there are none here on our part of the prairie.
One thing I love about this time of year is the price of squash. Butternut is my favourite. And I always intend to try cooking pumpkin as a vegetable, but so far I haven't, because there are none left after Hallowe'en.
Wishing you and yours a happy Thanksgiving, Jenn.
Love, K

Christine said...

cute pumpkin! Happy Thanksgiving Jenn! I'm thinking to get plastic plug-in pumpkin when I find one! The days of scraping them out are over. It would be lighter too.

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and awesome Fall photos ~ thanks for coming by ~ carol ^_^ (A Creative Harbor)

Louisette said...

Happy Thanksgiving!
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B ♥ E ♥ A ♥ U ♥ T ♥ I ♥ F ♥ U ♥ L
creations

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

Happy Thanksgiving. That is a big turkey. Love the pics!

lisa lewicki hermanson said...

Happy Thanksgiving, Jennifer !
Suddenly Turkey sounds good !

Red said...

There's nothing like a free range turkey! I can still remember the taste of turkeys we had on the farm. Your Mom had some good traditions that you look back on with pleasure.

Olga said...

I hope you had a wonderful day.