Practice Turkey

Family traditions are so important to all of us - this past weekend me and my siblings got together at my parents home to discuss the upcoming holiday season and the many wonderful family traditions that we share. We love these traditions but we have all come to realize that keeping them going is a lot of hard work!

My mom and dad are not as young as they used to be and it can really be difficult for them to make these things happen. So we made some big decisions on what we are going to do to make this holiday season not only fun and memorable but also less stressful!

The one tradition that none of us or our children could give up was our annual "Practice Turkey". This tradition came about because my grandma felt that she was getting too old to do the whole Thanksgiving production - she wanted to have her sons and their families take over the responsibility of cooking the turkey and hosting the event. Since my dad is the oldest son; his would be the first turn. My mom had never cooked a turkey before and she was intimidated by the amazing meals that my grandma always turned out. What if it wasn't good? What if she burned the turkey? What if no one liked the stuffing? This is a huge amount of pressure.

After some discussion my dad suggested that they make a "Practice Turkey Dinner" - they would make the whole Thanksgiving meal a few weeks in advance so they could practice and make sure that the main event went off without a hitch. The "Practice Turkey" was a HUGE success! In fact it was so successful that my mom and dad decided to hold "Practice Turkey" every year in October. It has evolved from practicing Thanksgiving to being a family tradition and the opportunity for everyone to get together and eat our favorite holiday foods.

This tradition made Thanksgiving a lot less stressful for me and my siblings when we got married - not only do you have your family to celebrate with but now you have the in-laws who want to share your time and their traditions. I quickly found that sometimes the traditional food of one family is different from another. "Practice Turkey" always gives us the opportunity to eat our favorite Thanksgiving foods and then we don't feel like we miss anything if we have to miss the regular Thanksgiving meal with this side of the family.

"Practice Turkey" has been a great blessing for my children as they have grown and gotten married - they look forward to this event every year. Even the spouses who have married into the family have adopted the tradition and love attending and eating the great food.

So even though we are making some changes - this tradition will be stronger than ever! Two weeks from Sunday..."Practice Turkey" YUM! YUM!