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Thanksgiving: Family, Football, Turkey (LOTS Of It!!), And Fun!! :) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Rated "G" by the Author.
A kid writes about his Thanksgiving Day traditions.
Today is Thanksgiving Day in America: it is one of the most important holidays that we celebrate.
We usually celebrate it with parades (you have your choice between CBS or the big one, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade live from New York City), family togetherness (boy, do I have a family!!), food (lots of it; don't forget the turkey, Mama!), prayers of thanksgiving for our blessings, and after we pig out on delicious food, we watch football on television, wish we didn't eat so much in the first place.
I know we will be celebrating it. We will also be celebrating my Nonna's birthday. She's 82 years young today; came to the US from Italy when she was but fourteen, raised a family, and has given us many traditions that some people may find odd.
For example, we have some Italian fare during Thanksgiving: spaghetti, linguini, or even lasagna alongside the turkey and all the trimmin's, and we have wine at the table (more for the grownups).
Or we have the opera records playing (my Nonny loves the late, great Luciano Pavarotti; there's nothing more relaxing or enjoyable to us than listening to his soaring tenor voice while we snarf on good home cookin', done Figaronelli style!!).
Yet even with our Italian-ness, we are still an American family: most of us were born here--well, that was until Mama and Papa started adopting, that is. We are a true rainbow family; we have kids from all over the world (China, Vietnam, Korea, even New York City), yet by the miracle of adoption, we are all brothers and sisters.
By the way, my name is Vincente. I'm thirteen now; turned thirteen on May 24 of this year. We range in age from sixteen down to three.
Mama and Papa may be adopting more. Right now there's six kids; yet by this time next year there may very well be more kids in the family.
Mama and Papa have always loved children; they have particularly shown love towards kids who were considered "children with special needs": kids who are handicapped, older than the age of two, or kids who have behavioral problems, or kids who, for one reason or another, couldn't be separated.
Personally, I think it's great. Mama and Papa are doing a wonderful thing for society: not many people are willing to take on children who are disabled; yet my folks have learned to see the whole child, not just their disabilities, no matter how obvious it may be.
Mama and Papa learned this from another family, the Sanduskys from Tennessee: learn to love the whole child, focus on their abilities, not just on their disabilities, and treat them as you would your own, give them lots of love and nurturing.
The Sanduskys are an amazing family in themselves: they have adopted sixty children now, and the mother (Louisiana) is pregnant with twins, both boys; there will soon be sixty two kids in the family. In addition, they have a little foster kid who they are planning to add to the family, so there will soon be sixty-three kids!!
Yikes!
Anyway, I certainly have much to be thankful for this year. We made it through another year still intact, and we made it through with only one major hospitalization (my sister, Kayla Rosalina, who's sixteen, had heart surgery; she has heart problems and is mentally disabled). My sister, I'm glad to say, is doing better now; for a while, she gave us plenty of time for worry!
I'm glad that's all behind us now; now we can concentrate on being a family again!
And diving into the turkey! Hee hee! :) Yum!!
So on that note, from my family, the Figaronellis, to yours, may each and every one of you have the best Thanksgiving EVER!!
Another delightful holiday offering Karen, I enjoy reading about the different types of food served in different families...good job!
love and peace, Carole~
