When I was growing up we would go back and forth between my dad’s family and my mom’s family every few years to celebrate Thanksgiving. It didn’t matter what side of the family we were with, we always had well over ten people at the dinner table.
Then I went to college and I decided to take advantage of the quick holiday and head to Europe, where they do not celebrate pilgrams and they do not eat turkey on this very special day.
For the past few years though, my family has been gathering around a smaller table, with just the five of us. (My sister, mom, dad, me and grandmother). In the beginning it was weird. After slaving for hours the handful of us just sat there in silence (because we had already discussed the 10 topics that were on our minds) and ate our meal.
About two years ago my sister and I decided that our small family Thanksgiving needed some traditions. I guess you can call things “tradition” when it happens more than once, right? Well, for at least the past two years in a row Leslie & I have had a mini photo shoot before we can eat pie and we’ve played family beer pong. (Little did we know my folks would school us in Thanksgiving drinking games…)
As I was looking through past photos I realized that apparently it is also a tradition for me to help mash potatoes too! Two years in a row! Here’s a few photo’s from Thanksgiving 2010:
This year we have a ton of family coming into town from Maryland. So I am guessing the family beer pong is OUT… but what is IN will be actually passing food around the table, working hard to prepare for a large group, decorating, catching up, and probably a bit of stress.
My poor mother has been on ‘vacation’ for the past three days and really has not stopped working for more than twenty minutes. Some vacation, right?! So I decided it would be very appropriate to put my new photoshop skills to work and make a “Keep Calm” sign to put in the kitchen on Thursday! I have seen several versions of these floating around the blogosphere so by no means am I taking credit for this idea… I just photoshopped one of my own. 
What do you think? It only took me a couple of quick clicks and a minute of printing! I went to the dollar store today and bought a cheap 8×10 frame. I think it’s kinda perfect! I love the turkey and I especially love the glass of wine sitting with him! The retro cam photo above makes it look a bit red, but it is actually brown with tan writing.
Want a copy to print for your own kitchen tomorrow as a reminder to “Keep Calm and Gobble On?” You don’t even have to put it in a frame, just stick it on the fridge! Leave a comment below and I will email it to you! (I just ask you share this with your friends & followers!)
Gobble Gobble!