Grandparents

To me it seems that Grandparents & Thanksgiving go together. When I was a small child we always went to Grandma Lehman's home for a big family Thanksgiving meal. My mother was one of six children so it was a fairly large gathering. I remember the women busy in the kitchen while the men folk sat around talking and us kids getting under foot or playing outside on the nearby school play-ground.

Once in awhile the get together would be a Klingbeil family gathering. This was Grandma Lehman's family. She had six sisters and only one brother. It would be held at a different home each year. It would either be around Thanksgiving or Christmas depending on what was best time for the majority of the family. What a feast this would be with more then on turkey, ham, roast beef, several variety of potato, salads, vegetables, and a wide variety of desserts. Afterwards the women would all be busy with the clean-up and the men sat around smoking cigars and chatting. I always thought it so unfair that the women folk would do all the work while that men did little to nothing except put up all the tables. I mentioned this once to Grandpa, and he told me that the men worked 52 weeks of the year so that the women would be able to do this feast work for them. Guess that put me in my place.

After my grandmother's passing at age 62 from brain cancer, things seemed to change. I was 14 years of age and the first Thanksgiving after her passing was quiet. No big gathering. Mother had the Thanksgiving meal at our home with Grandpa being there. While the meal was excellent, it is wasn't the same.

I only remember a couple big Kligbeil gatherings after that. One was the Christmas of my 17th year in Melbourne, Iowa. Everyone was there from all over the country. Seems like no one does this type of thing anymore in the family. All of my great-aunt and uncles have since passed on, and I've lost contact with many of my mother's cousins.

After my marriage, we had Thanksgiving with Jay's family. He had 2 older brothers, Chuck & Bob, and younger brother, Jim. On Sunday after, we had Thanksgiving with my mother, and two brothers, Ken & Roger.

My mother remarried shortly after the birth of my last child and moved to Winslow, Arizona. So then Thanksgiving and Christmas was spent with Jay's family. My brother, Ken, had married and spent these days with his wife's family and Roger was living by then in New York City. He later moved to Spain and then on to live in Paris, France where he continues to live.

When my mother-in-law got older and her health go bad, I started to have the Thanksgiving meals at my home. By then it was a smaller family. Chuck & his wife, Kathy had been killed in a car accident in January of 1964. Bob & his wife, Bev, went to her family. We had our Love Family get together on Christmas with all the family members.

To our youngest son, Ken, Thanksgiving makes him miss his Grandpa & Grandma Love. He remembers all the Thanksgiving meals with them and his grandma's wonderful homemade crescent rolls.

Now Thanksgiving is spent with Ken and his family. His children just expect to spend that special day with us. Ever since Ashley & Mark were very, very young (2 years for Ashley) they have helped Grandma fix the turkey. I would cut a kitchen trash bag into a pull-over apron for each child to protect their clothing. I then would butter their little hands and turn them loose on buttering up the turkey. They had so much fun doing this. I would also let them sprinkle on the salt, pepper, sage, and other seasonings. I would cut up orange wedges with stuck in cloves, celery, onions, apples and let them insert this into the cavity of the turkey. They thought this to be the most fun. We would then carefully place the turkey into the roasting pan.

Next, we would make the chocolate pie and each year they would be surprised at how good it turned out. They would help whip up the potatoes, set the table and took pride in helping. We would make sugar cut-out cookies in the evening. The first time I turned them loose on this project, Mark said the cookie dough felt like mashed potato. Made me wonder how he ate his potato. The kitchen was a mess, but the memories are so wonderful that is was so worth it.

This year we will travel to Minnesota for our Thanksgiving with the kids. Ashley is now taller then I at almost 13 years of age and Mark will soon be 10. Time goes fast, but Thanksgiving is time spent with Grandpa & Grandma. Now we're the grandparents.

In Maryland, our granddaughters, Deanna & Stephanie will spend their Thanksgiving with their grandparents, Sonny & Sis Parker. This is my daughter's in-laws. Sonny (Alan) and Sis (Catherine) used to live next door to the girls when they were growing up. Now my daughter has moved and so has Rich's parents. His parents now live in North Carolina with their daughter, Cheryl and family. This year they're coming up to stay with Rich, Lori, and Stephanie. Stephanie and her grandma Parker will make the meal. Stephanie is so excited about being able to do this once more with her grandmother. Deanna, Robert, and daughter, Katherine will join them for that meal. So they will have 4 generations there that day.

My oldest son, Rick, & wife will spent the day being grandparents to twins, Zachary, Cody, and little Drake. Time goes on. We are now the oldest generation and the tradition continues as it should