Thanksgiving Traditions

Establishing traditions for our
Party of Three
is rather important to me.

Without our family,
without our homeland,
with so many places to explore,
with so many friends coming and going. . .
well, it's not always so easy.
One has to work at it.

This was our 4th Thanksgiving at Casa San Martino;
I think that we are well on our way to a
Family Tradition here, folks.







I need for a young adult Maddy to be able to say things like this:
"When I was growing up, each year at Thanksgiving we joined friends at my momma's favorite place to be, Casa San Martino. I remember the year that we forgot to bring the turkey pan & DW and Dad went from the "panificio" (bakery) to the "macelleria" (butcher shop) to the "ferramenta" (hardware store) in Mercatale and begged shamelessly to borrow one. And each local Italian regretfully replied that he couldn't help, but suggested the next stop on the hunt; and each person was unbelievably kind and generous and interested in helping out the "Americani" for their "tacchino" on their "Giorno di Ringraziamento." Imagine the looks -- you need what? for a turkey? how big? And when they finally did find one to borrow (thanks to the baker), well, it just didn't fit in the oven! They cut the wings clean off the bird and shoved it into a very small piece of Corning Ware."


The above-mentioned 25 pound bird
Before:

And After:

or maybe she'll say:

"The previous year this same group of friends ordered a fresh turkey from the local butcher in Mercatale. It was only when they picked it up did they realize that it was only 10 pounds! There were 10 adults and 7 children to feed. The extra turkey breasts offered by the butcher did not cut it. How could this Italian butcher have known? Americani! "

or she may (i know, i know) say:
"I wish we were skiing."

These are, of course,
my memories.
I'm convinced that she, too,
will have fond memories as a result of traditions.

I'll post some more pics of our weekend
when I get a moment. Until then,
I have some previously scheduled posts lined up.