Happy Thanksgiving all. The daily writing prompt asks a holiday type question – Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?

We stick to the traditional dishes for the most part. My better half makes stuffing that the family lives for. Every part of the meal I love.

My special dish is memories. Don’t take for granted that members of your family and friends that gather during the holidays will be there next time. Savor the time together, put small differences aside. Find out something about them you didn’t know.

I love creating new memories but I do love the old ones on the holidays. They can bring a smile and a tear at the same time. Thoughts drift back to our parent’s homes at Thanksgiving. The memories of your siblings as a youth, maybe playing in the yard, watching football or seeing how many raids you can get away with in the kitchen sampling things before dinner.

And then as adults their smiles as you would come back home for the holiday. Those smells would hit you at the door that took you back a few years and felt like moms embrace, when you were 10 years old.

Time flies, and then both you and their grandchildren are knocking on their doors, and you see your parents smiles bigger than you ever got and you become invisible for a few seconds because they fixate on the little ones. And you smile with happiness as they give you a quick kiss and hug.

And if you’re lucky the great grandchildren are also running around. You see all your siblings and their kids, and everyone is together. And then not. Parents pass, families start to have their own celebrations with a few exceptions. Siblings move away or don’t care to participate in a family style gathering.

The family spits into separate units, loosely connected at times or not at all. I’m trying to get back to that old time with my family. We the older parents now, our children and grandchildren for holidays. And if we are lucky one day way down the road, some great grandchildren.

I’m thankful again for another year and that is a wonderful dish I hope to keep getting served.